Mother-in-Law Offers to Pay for Grandchild's Nursery, but Mom-to-Be Shuts Her Down
Now, the mother-in-law says the woman is being "selfish and ungrateful"
Kondoros Eva Katalin/Getty
Young couple in their nursery in stock photoA 29-year-old woman expecting her first child said she has turned down her mother-in-law's offer to pay for a new nursery — because the mother-in-law wants to decorate it herself.
In a post shared to Reddit, the woman writes that she and her husband are "proud" of the work they recently completed on their home nursery.
"It’s simple but feels perfect for us," she writes. "We went with soft colors, some handmade decorations, and furniture we either thrifted or built ourselves to save money."
But when the woman's mother-in-law came over to see it, she had questions.
"She immediately made comments like, 'Oh, this looks so bare. Where’s the fun? Don’t you want your baby to be surrounded by bright, happy colors?' and, 'It’s nice, but this feels unfinished, don’t you think?' I brushed it off at first, but a week later, she brought it up again and offered to 'fix it up' as a gift—saying she’d pay for everything and have it done in time for the baby’s arrival."
The poster continues: "I told her I appreciated the offer, but we weren’t interested in changing anything. She got frustrated and said something like, 'It’s not about you, it’s about what’s best for the baby,' and implied our 'boring' nursery wouldn’t be 'stimulating' enough. I don’t think she meant to sound insulting, but it rubbed me the wrong way."
The woman's husband feels caught in the middle but she wants to stand her ground, writing, "it’s our home, our baby, and we worked hard on this space."
Eventually, the woman says her husband came around, calling his mom to explain "that we’re happy with the nursery the way it is, we worked hard on it, and that it wasn’t fair of her to keep pushing us to change it."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Related: Woman's Mother-In-Law Uninvites Her From Thanksgiving — but When She Backtracks, the Drama Begins
His mother did not take it well.
"MIL completely blew up at him, saying I was 'controlling' and 'turning him against her,' and then she texted me directly to say she’s cutting contact until I 'stop being so selfish and ungrateful,' " she writes.
Commenters are urging the woman not to back down, with one writing, "If you give in on this, the next thing she’ll want to choose the baby‘s name, then how you feed the baby and dress the baby and on and on and on, to school and pediatricians and everything else. Stamp this out now. You and your husband decorated for your child in your home, that’s that. explain to him that it’s time for him to stop being a son and to start being a father."
Read the original article on People
