A spat with a mother-in-law is a tale that’s as old as time. However, sometimes, some trespasses cannot be forgiven. The matter is particularly important about privacy in their own homes. After all, just because they are relatives does not mean they have the right to snoop around inside bedrooms and offices without permission! This is the problem that u/itsbettertobelucky faced about two years ago. OP even devised a pretty funny way of proving and teaching the MIL a lesson as well, as stated in the AITA post. However, not everyone around her seems to agree with her.
To begin with, OP says that her mother-in-law always has the desire to enter their bedroom. One time she had even followed her upstairs and caught her red-handed rifling through their bills and other documents. However, MIL had denied it to her face and claimed she was searching for the bathroom. On the way, though, there were two bathrooms that OP’s mother-in-law had gone past for some reason. Upon bringing it up with her husband, they decided to get locks for the doors. With this, the husband believed that OP should no longer be bothered by it: “My husband says that I just get annoyed at this because everything she does drives me crazy and since we’ve put locks on the rooms we don’t want her in, there isn’t really a problem anymore.”
Teaching The Mother-in-Law A Lesson
This arrangement was already until the holidays arrived. The in-laws were visiting, so OP had gone in search of the bedroom keys. She could not find them, and her husband insisted that there wouldn’t be any more need for it either. However, OP was not convinced, and the pair decided to cover the doorknobs with super fine glitter. The MIL had been caught in a similar way earlier as well, which had proved her guilty to the husband. This time around, OP made an even more cunning trap: “So this time I covered the knobs in glitter and for the office went a touch further and rigged a little folder of glitter over the door to the office before the in laws came over. I left it one side unlocked (French doors) and it was set so if you walked in the room you would get covered in glitter.”
After all that, OP’s husband made it a point to show MIL the bathroom. They also had a baby gate, so there were no questions about any kids getting to the doors. However, someone did trigger the traps, and she lost her mind at the consequences:
“Well guess who had to go to the bathroom and got covered in glitter and had it all over their hands and hair? She completely lost it and started screaming at me so I yelled back and now my husband is saying I went too far and I’m the asshole. MIL also says I’m the asshole but SIL says I didn’t do anything wrong and MIL deserved it for snooping. FIL is Switzerland. Apparently her car is ruined now too because it’s covered in glitter that she can’t get cleaned up.”
The Reaction To The Result
The Husband, unfortunately, said OP went too far, but her SIL was on OP’s side. As for Reddit, the verdict was clear: OP was NTA all the way. A lot of the comments pointed out a bigger issue: the fact that her husband kept defending the MIL. For example, as Hefty_Candidate_4902 says:
“NTA. Your MIL is an issue but the fact that your husband refuses to set and enforce boundaries with her is actually the larger issue here.”
Some comments, like this one from u/IndieJones29 even felt sorry for OP because of the cleanup she will have to do:
“NTA. Why is your husband okay with his mother walking all over your boundaries. Also, the getting caught with glitter on her hands is HILARIOUS, but it’s going to be hard to clean up, for you.”
Be that as it may, in a later update, OP did clarify that her husband was probably angry because he did not think it would be that much glitter. Moreover, they agreed to go to couples therapy to resolve issues like this. As for her future traps, this is what she has to say:
“I will be ordering some cellulose glitter that is biodegradable and safer for future projects. And if she comes over again I will set up a camera haha or at least print out some fun fake documents so if she snoops again she can at least find something interesting”
So do you think OP was in the wrong for the trap? Let us know in the comments!