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She just wanted to get her mother-in-law to stop texting her.
By Jessica Bracken — Written on Jun 04, 2023
A woman took to Reddit to see if she was wrong for accidentally lying about the gender of her child.
Although the soon-to-be mother had no interest in a gender reveal party for her baby, her husband’s family insisted on holding one. She didn’t know the gender of her child beforehand but her mother-in-law insisted that she tell her, leading to an awkward situation later on.
One woman’s mother-in-law accused her of lying about the gender of her baby to ‘embarrass her.’
The woman made a post on the “r/AmItheA--hole” (AITA) subreddit to see if others thought that she was in the wrong for “lying, unknowingly, about the gender of her baby.”
Since she didn’t know her baby’s gender but her mother-in-law spent a month bothering her about it over text, the woman made a guess and said that her baby would be a girl. “I figured it was a 50/50 chance and it would get her off my back,” she wrote.
Source: Reddit
The mother-in-law had apparently promised that she wouldn’t tell anyone the baby’s gender, but this turned out to be a lie. On the day of the party, it was revealed that she had told “literally all of the guests from her side of the family" so that they could bring "appropriate" gifts.
The woman’s mother-in-law confronted her at the party, accusing her of making her “look stupid.” The mother-in-law denied that she had ever promised to keep the baby’s gender a secret, but there were text receipts of their conversation.
Although the original poster didn’t think her actions were terribly offensive, her husband asked her to apologize to his mother to “keep the peace.” She took to Reddit to see if she really owed her mother-in-law an apology.
Photo: Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock
People overwhelmingly sided with the woman who made the post, saying her mother-in-law had gotten exactly what she deserved.
Commenters had plenty of suggestions as to what the woman could say to her mother-in-law in place of a genuine apology. “I’m sorry you embarrassed yourself by lying” and “I'm sorry I trusted you to keep this between us” were some of the most popular proposals.
Redditors also warned the woman that apologizing instead of holding her mother-in-law accountable would set a bad precedent. “Appeasing the irrational only invites more bad behavior,” said one user.
The general consensus among commenters was that the woman should be wary of the fact that her husband was willing to overlook and enable his mother’s behavior instead of standing up for his wife. “She’s got a husband problem, not a mother-in-law problem” was a popular sentiment.
“I hate that the husband wants OP to apologize. She’s literally the wronged person here who was harassed and lied to,” one user said.
“Husband needs to tell his mother to do the apologizing.” another added, “It's always the reasonable people who are pressured into ‘keeping the peace,’ which is code for ‘let the a-holes do whatever they want and apologize for ever trying to stand up to them.’ The husband in this case needs to apologize for not defending his wife against his unhinged mother and for trying to make her apologize.”
From the post, it seems like the mother-in-law got exactly what she deserved, and we can only hope that the original poster and her husband stand their ground and hold her accountable for her behavior.
Jessica Bracken is a writer living in Davis, California. She covers entertainment and news for YourTango.