I (28F) have been married to my husband, Tom (33M), for five years now. His family is extremely tight-knit, which is great in theory, but his mom has always had\u2026 boundary issues, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the beginning, she\u2019s made it clear she doesn\u2019t like sharing \u201cher son,\u201d and I\u2019ve had to smile through a lot of passive-aggressive comments like, \u201cI guess this is what happens when boys grow up and leave their mothers behind,\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t forget who loved him first.\u201d That kind of thing. I\u2019ve always tried to keep the peace and be respectful, even when it grated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last weekend was Tom\u2019s birthday, and his family hosted a dinner at an upscale restaurant. I dressed up, brought him a thoughtful gift, and was ready to celebrate. I truly wanted it to be a special evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we got there, I noticed his mom had already claimed the seat next to him. No big deal \u2014 I sat on his other side. But before we even placed our orders, she stood up, pointed at me, and shouted, \u201cShe is so clingy!\u201d Then, added, \u201cLet\u2019s give Tom a break from being glued to his wife for once!\u201d Then she looked directly at me, gestured to the next chair over, and said, \u201cScoot down, sweetheart. Let Mom sit with her birthday boy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everyone laughed \u2014 including Tom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt blindsided and honestly a bit humiliated, but didn\u2019t want to make a scene. So, I quietly slid over while she practically draped herself over him like he was her prom date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a few minutes of sitting there, stewing in embarrassment while everyone carried on like this was normal, I realized I didn\u2019t want to spend the night like that. So I stood up, grabbed my purse, and said, \u201cActually, I think I\u2019ll head out. Happy birthday, Tom.\u201d And I left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He texted me later, furious, saying I\u2019d made a scene, embarrassed him in front of his family, and \u201coverreacted to a harmless joke.\u201d His mom followed up with a message that said, \u201cSorry if you\u2019re the sensitive type \u2014 we just like to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now he\u2019s giving me the silent treatment unless I apologize. I don\u2019t think I was wrong, but since it was his birthday, I\u2019m second-guessing myself. Still\u2026 am I crazy for feeling they crossed a line? Do I really have to apologize?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I (28F) have been married to my husband, Tom (33M), for five years now. His family is extremely tight-knit, which is great in theory, but his mom… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":358,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2591,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions\/2591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}