I Refused to Help My MIL after How She Treated My Family When We Almost Lost Everything

A woman and her husband found themselves homeless after drowning in medical bills. But during this time, only one person was in their corner, and they never forgot how the rest of the family treated them during their darkest moments.

A Redditor reflected on a time when her family faced a tremendously challenging situation. The woman and her husband share four kids, and a few years ago, they were financially stranded after their youngest son fell incredibly ill.

Two people comforting each other | Source: Shutterstock

The couple was swimming in medical bills, and their financial situation got so bad that they lost their home. Their kids went to live with the Redditor's mother while the two parents lived in their car. The Original Poster (OP) and her husband spent four months in their vehicles.

During this difficult time, the mother of four said she only had the support of her mother. Meanwhile, her husband's mother lived in a six-bedroom house but never offered to take them in, justifying not helping out by saying that she did not enjoy living with other people.

A woman having a warm drink in a car | Source: Freepik

Eventually, the OP's mother bought them a camper, which she connected to her electric and water supplies. If it had not been for her mom's help, the Redditor did not know how long it would have taken them to recover.

Fortunately for the family, things eventually started falling into place. The couple started their own business, which allowed them to pay back her mother and even buy a home. The Redditor admitted that she never held a grudge against her mother-in-law but never forgot how she treated her family during some of their darkest times. "She left her grandchildren homeless." she reiterated.

A woman living in a van | Source: Freepik

One day, the mother-in-law called her husband, telling him her house was about to be foreclosed because she owed $20,000 in taxes. The Redditor did not understand why she would miss payments when she made about $60,000 a year.

Nonetheless, the OP did not fully know what the mother-in-law said to her husband, but he came to her asking if they could help pay his mother's taxes, and the wife refused. She emphasized that she would not put thousands of dollars into saving someone else's home and risk putting herself back into a bad financial position.

An elderly woman looking worried while on the phone | Source: Freepik

The more the wife pushed back at her husband's requests, the more he came up with "hypothetical” scenarios of what would happen if they did not help her. "Yeah, but if we don't, hypothetically speaking, she will need to move in with us," he said.

He also suggested they build an additional room they had already planned to use as a library and let her stay there for the time being, but the wife refused. "He kept pushing it. Kept saying the word 'hypothetically' despite me saying 'no' several times. She's not living here. I'm not paying her taxes either," emphasized the OP.

The Redditor lost her cool and told her husband to leave her alone. The man got angry at his wife, saying she was holding a grudge against his mother for not helping them. The OP admitted that he could be right, but she was not going to forget how she left her grandchildren stranded when they needed her the most.

A couple looking unhappy | Source: Shutterstock

The OP turned to other Reddit users to ask if she was wrong for refusing to help her mother-in-law after she had not helped them in their time of need. However, commenters agreed with how she handled her husband's mother.

People believed this was a great way for the mother-in-law to learn about "Karma." Since the woman was uncomfortable sharing her home, Redditors thought it was fair for the OP not to want to share her space with her mother-in-law.

However, commenters found it challenging to comprehend how the mother-in-law would have a six-bedroom house and not want to share it with anyone.

If you enjoyed this story, here is another one about a couple who canceled their trip to pay the mother-in-law's debts only to find out she lied.