r/AITH • u/MarcellaHarrington • 9h ago
AITH for banning my mother in law from our home after I found out she has been secretly inviting my husband’s ex to family events
I am a thirty year old marketing manager, and I have been married to my husband for two years. We have a four month old baby girl, and until recently I thought my relationship with my mother in law was fine, even if she was a bit controlling. She always said she wanted us to be one big happy family, and I believed her. Three weeks ago my husband’s cousin let something slip at a barbecue. She said she was happy to see the “old gang” back together at the last family dinner, and when I asked what she meant, she went pale and said I should ask my mother in law. I did not want to cause a scene, so I quietly went through the family group photos, and there she was in three different pictures from the last six months. She was my husband’s ex girlfriend, the one he was with for four years before me, standing right next to my mother in law, smiling, with her arm around her. I was not invited to any of those dinners, because each time I was told it was just a small gathering and the baby needed rest. When I showed my husband the photos he looked sick, and he told me honestly that he had no idea. He had been told the dinners were only for the older relatives, and he had skipped most of them because of work. I confronted my mother in law calmly on the phone, and instead of apologising she said the ex was “like a daughter” to her, that she had never liked how fast we got married, and that she had only been keeping the door open in case things did not work out between us. I told her that was disrespectful to me, to my husband and to our daughter, and that she was no longer welcome in our home until she apologised properly and stopped contacting the ex about family matters. She cried, called me dramatic and insecure, and said I was keeping her granddaughter away from her over some photos. Now my husband’s aunts and two of his cousins are messaging me saying I am tearing the family apart, and one of them said I should be grateful my mother in law helps with the baby at all. Yesterday my mother in law sent a message saying she is coming to our house on Sunday with the whole family and that we will “settle this properly once and for all”, and she has also hinted that she knows something about me that my husband should hear. I honestly have no idea what she means, but my husband says he is standing with me and that he will not open the door. So am I the hero here for protecting my marriage and my daughter, or am I the asshole for cutting off my mother in law over a few photos? What do you think, am I the hero or the AITH? I will post an update next week if people want to know what happens.