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What would you do if you bought a new house and your mother-in-law demanded a key?
That’s the situation in today’s story, and the housewarming party turns into a boundary battle royale.
One key question—literally—set off a chain of events that left feelings hurt and doors firmly closed.
Read on for the story.
2 weeks ago my son [Ethan, 27] and his wife [Jess, 30] bought a small one story house in the town we live in. After settling down they invited us for a small party for the occasion.
We sat for dinner and talked about the house a bit.
Me, my husband and Jess continued conversing after Ethan excused himself to take an important call.
Jess showed me the original key to the house and I asked if she made copies yet and she said no.
I said she should and also give one copy to me as well.
She looked at me funny and asked why she should.
Because nothing says ‘Congrats on your new house’ like inviting your mother-in-law to move in, right?
I explained that it is necessary so that it could be used in emergencies.
She rudely said “I don’t know what kind of an emergency that would require you having a key to our house, sure won’t be a fire incident!”
She obviously didn’t seem to have any idea that a fire incident wasn’t what I meant and I got offended by her sarcasm. I pointed out that it’s not just her decision because this is my son’s house as well.
She smiled at me trying to be polite and stated that only the ones who contributed towards the house get a copy and that I really don’t need one anyway.
“Nothing says ‘welcome to your new home’ like demanding a key and storming out when they say no.
She also assured me that my son will have the same answer for me. Basically saying “Don’t bother bring this up with Ethan, he’ll tell you the same thing” but I did and she spoke on his behalf the entire argument repeating what she said over and over.
Things escalated to her calling me pushy and me telling her she was being unnecessarily rude and disrespectful.
My husband and I left in a rush and I felt horrible.
My husband went on and on about how paranoid and controlling I was to basically be “demanding” a copy of the key to the new house.
She doesn’t think she did anything wrong.
But again I stated that I was just trying to be helpful and taking extra precautions since anything could happen but he insisted I overstepped and ruined Ethan’s and Jess’s joy for their new house as well as dinner.
I genuinely do not think what I said was out of line and I’m not sure why Jess reacted so intensely.
I think my request was innocent.
The mother-in-law certainly sounds entitled and pushy!
Reddit’s take? A mix of “you overstepped” and “it’s their home, not yours.”
This person says Mom was super rude.
This person agrees.
And this person says there’s many other ways this could’ve been phrased.
There’s a difference between asking and demanding.
If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.
