12 Mothers-in-Law Whose Odd Actions Challenged Even the Most Patient Souls

A mother-in-law plays a significant role in one’s life, not only as the parent of your partner but also as a secondary motherly figure. They often exhibit warmth and kindness but even the most gracious among them may have some quirks that defy reason. And the following collection of short stories is here to illustrate this point.

• My ex mother-in-law gave my 3 kids gifts they loved at Christmas when they were small, 2 days later she came to the house packed everything, she got them into bags, and took it all back to the stores because she was “broke.” © nothingis_real / Reddit

• My mother-in-law was embarrassed to buy personal hygiene products for herself, and she asked me to do it as her future daughter-in-law. I went out and bought her a year’s worth of the sanitary pads she liked. I wrapped them up so pretty, so they looked like an extravagant gift.
  Then, I left them at the reception desk where she worked. How was it my fault that she opened them at work? Needless to say, she convinced her son that I wasn’t an appropriate marriage material. But since I was the breadwinner, I wasn’t upset that our relationship ended. © Jane B. Overton / Quora

• In spite of all our attempts to explain it to her, my mother-in-law couldn’t figure out how to use the names of people in her address book, and she usually just typed out phone numbers instead. My wife’s number is one digit different from her own number. So she sent an SMS to herself, thinking it was her daughter (my wife).
  “Dinner?”, she gets a text back immediately. “Dinner?”
  “What?”, she replies. Her phone dings immediately. “What?”
  She thought that her daughter was making fun of her, so she came to our house that evening to ask what was wrong. After looking through her phone, we figured out that she was talking to herself with text messages. © thedragon4453 / Reddit

• I love my mother-in-law, but she isn’t a very practical person. Her son and husband are always doing things for her. Once, we went shopping together and I was driving her car. When we bought everything we needed, she asked if we could put gas in the car. I said, “Yeah, sure.”
  I was pregnant at the time, so I thought that she would put the gas in the car herself. But she looked at me for a few seconds, and then asked me if I could do it. It turned out that she had never done it before, even though she had been driving for 15 years. © Daniela Arvesuk / Quora

• My boyfriend and I had been saving up to take a long road trip together. About a week before we were set to leave, he tells me that his mom spent hours crying to him about how much debt she has and that she may have to add a second mortgage to the house, sell precious family heirlooms, etc. So, being a good son, he decided to give her most of his road trip money. I was understanding, and we agreed to put the trip on hold, so he could save more.
  A few days later, I visited his mom, and she showed me this huge elaborate ceramic water fountain she had bought the day before for her garden. It was ridiculous. I muttered something like, “Must have been expensive.” She patted me on the shoulder and said, “Road trips are dangerous. It’s better this way.” © hazelk / Reddit

• My mother-in-law speaks about me on the phone in French which she thinks I can’t understand, but she’s too self-absorbed to have ever asked. I speak French. © Bonsaiboo / Reddit

• My mother-in-law bought all of her daughters-in-law a bracelet with a diamond in it. I thought it was pretty, but I never wear much jewelry. I get nervous about wearing anything but costume jewelry, because I am prone to losing things. Regardless, whenever I was around my mother-in-law, I tried to remember to wear it.
  A few years later, she approached me and offered to buy my bracelet back. I was shocked and asked her, “Why?” She said that her another daughter-in-law had lost her bracelet and was very upset about it. So she thought she could give my bracelet to her. © Anne Riley / Quora

• My mother-in-law asked me to stop by and pick up her vacuum cleaner from my sister-in-law’s house and bring it down to her house. My sister-in-law lives over 100 miles from my house, and my mother-in-law lives in the opposite direction around 500 miles away. She was seriously offended when I declined to drive a total of 1200 miles to bring her this vacuum cleaner and wouldn’t speak to me for at least 2 months after that. © Mickie McCord / Quora

• My boyfriend and I do triathlons (which involve tight spandex shorts). His mother came to watch one of our races, and after the race I looked through her photos and found one of my bottom, zoomed in, centered, and clearly intentional. I figured my boyfriend had taken her camera and snapped that picture, which is strange enough on your mother’s camera.
  When I asked him about it, his mother, completely unashamed, explained that she had taken the photo because she liked my bottom, and wanted to show her husband and friends in the “old country.” © roo12357 / Reddit

• My wife and I had been married for 6 years. She was 9 months pregnant and, in the hospital, almost ready to deliver. I was at her parents’ house along with my mother-in-law. Everyone else had left for the hospital, and I was waiting for my mother-in-law to finish bathing and dressing to take her there. As I was walking past the bathroom door, I noticed it was partially open.
  My mother-in-law hollered for me to come in and that she needed help. I wasn’t an emergency or anything, I figured she just needed me to fix a faucet or something. When I entered, she asked if I could wash her back! I was stunned! She handed me a soapy rag and I began washing her back. I quickly washed her back and got out of there. She just sat there and smiled at me. © George Engelhardt / Quora

• My mother-in-law says it is owed to her that I call to speak with her everyday. I am surprised someone would make such a request from me considering I had a life and a job before I met her son. She tells me that now that I am married it’s different. I don’t even call my own parents everyday. So for each time, I don’t call her, my name is being spread around her relatives that I am disrespectful. © Rachael Kigbu / Quora

• My father-in-law passed away and my wife and I ended up taking care of my mother-in-law in her home. We had 3 younger kids and my wife was run ragged with her mother and the kids. I did most -if not all- the home repairs for my mother-in-law. My wife’s sister and husband did almost nothing. This went on for a couple of years.
  My wife ended up telling her mom that her sister has to do more “because it’s too much for her.” This resulted in my mother-in-law cutting my wife out of her will, selling her house, giving the money to my wife’s sister and moving with her into a bigger home they are now able to buy. © windy444 / Reddit

Despite what you read above and contrary to the common stereotypes surrounding mothers-in-law, some of them can actually evolve into loyal friends, trusted advisors, and become valuable sources of support within the family.