I Charged My MIL for Christmas Dinner, Even Though She’s Always Helped Us for Free
One of our readers reached out about a holiday dinner that went horribly wrong. She just asked her grieving MIL to chip in $100. What happened next left her entire family sleeping and eating on the floor. If you’ve ever let resentment build until it explodes, you’ll relate.
I’ve been married to my husband, Jake, for 8 years. His mom, Linda (67F), has always been really generous with us. When we got married and had nothing, she bought us our entire living room set. When we had our first kid, she got us a crib, a changing table, and a rocking chair.
Six months ago, her husband died. It was sudden. I felt bad for her. But after the funeral, she started coming over like three times a week.
Always staying for dinner. Always bringing up memories of “when George was alive” and crying at our kitchen table. My kids started getting uncomfortable.
Two weeks before Christmas, she called Jake crying, saying she couldn’t bear to spend Christmas Eve alone in her house. She BEGGED him to let her come to our dinner. Jake immediately said yes without asking me. I was annoyed because I’d planned this whole nice evening for just our family, but whatever. I said, “Fine.”
The week before Christmas, I was venting to my sister about this whole situation. My sister said, “If she’s coming to YOUR house for YOUR Christmas dinner that YOU’RE cooking, she should at least bring something or chip in.”
And honestly, that made sense to me. Why should we pay for everything when she has her late husband’s pension and life insurance?
