A woman’s mother-in-law gave a helpful hand to a couple who were in the hospital waiting for their kid.
The couple was really grateful for her offer to feed their pets.
However, when they got back, they discovered a letter affixed to their refrigerator, the contents of which astounded them.
An anonymous woman shared her perplexing encounter on the “AITA” subreddit on October 9, 2023. The 31-year-old mom had her gorgeous kid a week ago, but she had to stay in the hospital until October 8 due to problems.
Appreciative to be back at home with their new baby, she considered how things had come about so suddenly. She was at home with her 33-year-old husband when her waters broke, and they weren’t thinking about cleaning. She just tossed some towels on the bedroom carpet and ran to the hospital.
A Charming Motion or Something Else?
The woman’s 59-year-old mother-in-law kindly offered to feed their pets while they were in the hospital, a gesture that the couple appreciated. But when they got back home, the wife saw a receipt and a letter on the refrigerator. She was shocked to learn that her mother-in-law had cleaned the entire house, not just the carpet in the bedroom.
The volume of texts was so overwhelming that OP turned off her phone in an attempt to escape the circumstances.
The message included a breakdown of the cleaning costs, including $200 in cleaning supplies and a day’s labor at $25 per hour. The woman was completely taken aback by this sudden demand for payment. “Although she did a great job cleaning my carpet and the rest of my house, neither of us requested that she do this,” the woman continued.
How Did OP’s Spouse Act?
The spouse of the original poster took the initiative to resolve the matter in response to the unforeseen demand. He texted his mother to thank her for helping out when they were in the hospital. But he had to express his worries about what she was doing:
“Hi mom, thank you so much for all of your assistance over the past several days when [my wife] was in the hospital. Having someone around to watch the dogs was a wonderful idea.
The man wrote that the receipt and letter affixed to the refrigerator were discovered by him and his wife. The MIL’s decision to search around their home astonished them since none of them had told her that OP had broken water in the bedroom.
Second, the couple was perplexed to discover that the mother-in-law was requesting payment for their services as well as her time spent cleaning the property after spending hundreds of dollars on cleaning supplies. Since they were supposed to pay for these cleaning supplies, they also needed to know where they were located to obtain value for their money.
We truly believed that you were assisting us out of the goodness of your heart when we entrusted you with the dogs, not so that you might profit quickly. The husband said, “We are family, and we are offended you would do something like this while [my wife] was so ill.
The mother-in-law replied as soon as she saw her husband’s letter, stating that her acts had been motivated by compassion and that she couldn’t understand their lack of thanks. Additionally, the woman received emails from her extended family highlighting the MIL’s support as a kind gift and applauding her efforts despite her elderly age.
The volume of texts was so overwhelming that OP turned off her phone in an attempt to escape the circumstances. Despite her goal to prepare the house for the baby, her mother-in-law was falsely portrayed as the villain, and her husband was accused of manipulating the situation. Meanwhile, her husband continued to get criticism from their family.
The wife was highly offended by the whole thing and disagreed with her husband’s recommendation. To allay the criticism from his extended family and free them up to concentrate on their new responsibilities as parents, he suggested compensating his mother. But the woman was adamantly against paying his mother for what she had done.
In the middle of all of this, the mother-in-law texted the couple again, saying she would be happy to give them the cleaning supplies as a gift, therefore taking that cost off of their bill. She said that the cleaning procedure included “a biohazard,” yet she insisted on getting compensated for her work despite this gesture.
The woman was split between her ideals and her family’s harmony, stuck between her husband’s want for peace and her unwillingness to give in. “AITA, why won’t you pay my mom?” she questioned.
How Do Redditors Feel Like?
How do you feel about this story’s conclusion?
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