"My Mother-In-Law Said It Was Just A Funny Prank": 15 In-Law Horror Stories That Will Make You Cringe, Cry, And Scream
A few months ago, I wrote a round-up about badly behaved in-laws. At the end of the post, I invited the BuzzFeed Community to weigh in with their own experiences, and WHEW, y'all had stories.
So here are 15 more anecdotes (including a few from this thread) about people's in-laws doing and saying things they 1000% should not have.
1."The first time I met my now late ex-mother-in-law, she asked me if my then-boyfriend had told me he loved me. I said, 'Excuse me?' and she repeated it with the added, 'Because if he did, he's f**king lying.'"
—Michele, 57, Ohio
2."My husband got an anonymous card in the mail on his birthday. It was romantic, something one would give to a lover, and it was signed with the words 'Love you forever.' It was even scented with perfume! It caused a horrible fight when he got home, with him denying anything was going on. It caused problems in our marriage because I couldn't get it out of my mind."
"Months later, his parents were visiting, and the subject came up. His mom began to giggle and act weird.
Turns out it was her. She said it was just a funny prank."
—Anonymous
3."I had a baby boy 22 years ago. My ex-mother-in-law said I was like a surrogate as my ex-husband and her were like a couple, but without the sex, ewww."
—Melissa, 45, Halifax
4."My FIL insisted on referring to the baby I was pregnant with as "[his name] Jr." (despite having a son and the opportunity to have a Jr. himself). It was not the biggest deal until I told him to stop, and he kept going. Then he started talking about how the baby was technically 25% his and would look and act just like him. He kept trying to touch my bump, and during a very uncomfortable lunch, he started to tell me (unprompted) that he didn't understand why pregnant women were so insecure and that he always thought baby bumps were really hot. Then he kept asking to see mine from a different angle. ??"
5."My mother-in-law hates me so much she calls me '#4' because I am my husband's 4th wife."
"He didn’t know he had severe PTSD, and none of his 3 previous wives understood enough to help him with the issues.
We have been together for 10 years."
—'Proud To Be #4', South Carolina
6."I had an ex-boyfriend whose mom would squeeze herself between us if we were sitting together on a couch. She also liked to sit on his lap. Very odd."
7."My worst experience caused me to have a massive panic attack. My boyfriend's father is a walking, talking, bad acid trip. He NEVER stops talking. Non-stop energy...He also talks AT you, which drives me nuts...I have no idea how he got on the topic, but one time when he was visiting, he started going on about conspiracy theories and how God is real in the second coming of Jesus. He went down a huge Bible rabbit hole. Then, he started talking about aliens and how they're real..."
"Now, his dad used to be high up in the government, so he knows things that normal civilians would never know. So his talking about how aliens are real and how the government is hiding all this stuff triggered one of the worst panic attacks I've ever had in my life.
I very quietly had to go upstairs and lock myself in the second bedroom. I called my best friend; I ended up taking a couple of Benadryl. I tried to put in my headphones to drown out the thoughts with music. I was so sick to my stomach and shaking. It was literally one of the worst experiences of my life.
My boyfriend now knows that his dad can be too much for me and mitigates it as best he can.
A lot of times, I will (very rudely, unfortunately) get up and walk away from his dad while he's talking."
8."I lived with and looked after my mother-in-law for 7 years while none of her other kids ever visited or helped with anything, not even on her birthday. Her bum of a daughter moved back to town after yet another failed relationship, took all her mum's retirement savings, and then told everyone I was mean to their mum and yelled at her (which never happened) to distract them from the fact she manipulated her mum into handing over her retirement savings, literally every dollar is gone!"
"They’re dead to me now, and my husband has no interest in having a relationship with them, either."
—Anonymous
9."When we went to tell my boyfriend’s mother we were engaged, she immediately brought out a photo album of my boyfriend’s first wedding."
—Anonymous
10."My mother-in-law claimed I DESTROYED her family after I said we would not make the 7-hour drive to their home for Christmas. I said we would come the day after. At the time, we had a 3-year-old and an infant. We had visited when the baby was 6 weeks old, and my in-laws complained the entire time because ’the damn baby’ cried all night."
"I didn’t think I could cope with hauling gifts and gear, having all 4 of us sleep in the same room, and trying to keep the baby quiet all night."
—Anonymous
11."My dad always pre-screened boyfriends by sitting them down and asking a few questions. My boyfriend at the time complained to his parents about this, and his mom was in the Army. She requested my boyfriend leave the house to get his sister and leave me there alone. She got a spotlight, a chair, and a camera and grilled me for 30 minutes about how my family embarrassed her son, and she would show this video to embarrass me."
"Needless to say, I broke up with the guy.
The dad apologized and said he deleted the video.
I cried the whole way home. His parents are now divorced."
—Anonymous
12."My father-in-law (who repeatedly comments on how much he loves younger women) was standing behind me to my side when I was sitting down. I was very pregnant and in a low-cut summer dress, and I swear this man was looking down my dress top. This man is the ick."
"This same man also complained that I didn’t want to hug him.
Like, this is why we chose the bear."
13."My ex-mother-in-law was what I considered a 'character,' funny, off-beat, and a little flaky. That is until I married her 'baby boy' and I realized she was nuts. It started at our wedding, which was a civil ceremony. She demanded that she be allowed to stand with the best man and maid of honor. Just her, not my parents."
"After I had kids, especially my daughter, who was her first granddaughter, my mother-in-law went even crazier. She tried feeding my daughter a peanut butter sandwich despite us telling her she was extremely allergic (allergies weren’t real, she said).
As a final gesture of insanity, she broke the news to me that my husband was cheating on me. She called me one evening when she knew he was at work and said she had just wanted to congratulate him on the birth of his newest son. I was not pregnant.
When I kicked him out, he ran back to Mommy and moved in with her."
—Anonymous
14."When I was in the hospital after having our son, my in-laws came to visit. I hadn’t slept since giving birth because I couldn’t get my son to sleep after putting him in his bassinet. I finally got him down, and my in-laws got ready to leave so we could rest. My mother-in-law walked up to my newborn son and woke him up by poking him to say 'goodbye.'"
"I cried for the next couple of days as I didn’t get a chance to sleep again.
Fast-forward to the day I arrived home from the hospital, and my in-laws came to drop off our golden retriever they had been watching. They also brought their Yorkie and Rottweiler, whom they had just gotten from a rescue. When I swooped in and picked up my baby [so their new Rottweiler wouldn't get too close], my father-in-law started yelling at me, telling me his dog was fine. He had a tantrum and walked out.
My mother-in-law and husband didn’t defend me or our baby."
—Sarah, NJ
15."My father-in-law was about to shoot me. My mother-in-law would watch my son while I went to work for his first couple years of life. Unfortunately, there were times when I had to drop off my son at 5:30 a.m. to be at work by 6. One day, I knocked on her door many times, but nobody answered. I called everyone’s phone who lived in the house, no answer. I waited for an hour after my shift started for someone to answer, and finally, someone did. My mother-in-law said she would leave the door unlocked in the future to avoid this. She said to just walk in tomorrow but to send a text first."
"The next day comes, and nobody answered the door. I tried to call, no answer again. As my mother-in-law instructed, I texted to say I was walking into the house.
Once I put my son on the couch, I saw my mother-in-law peeking around the corner at the top of the staircase.
She told me that her husband was loading his gun because he heard someone enter the house and didn’t know who it was.
She never told him about leaving the door unlocked for me…
I could’ve died."
There you have it! And a quick shoutout to ehch for seeing this prompt as an opportunity to talk about how much they adore their in-laws:
"I am forever grateful for having incredible in-laws. It makes life so much easier."
—ehch
Truly, goals.
So, how about you? Have you had an experience with your in-laws that left you speechless? Tell me about it in the comments or via this Google Form, if you prefer to remain anonymous. Your responses could be featured in a BuzzFeed Community post
Some entries may have been edited for length/clarity.