No Son of Mine
My daughter-in-law and son have three children aged three years, two years, and four months.
My son convinced her to be a stay-at-home mom and sell her business by telling her how good of a childhood he had and how happy my marriage was without telling her (which I today found out)
That our arrangement was everything before 9 am and after 5 pm was split 50/50, and I got Sundays off entirely as a mom.
On my last visit, I noticed my daughter-in-law was struggling mentally so me, my sister, and her girlfriend pooled our money together and paid for a spa weekend for them while we’d babysit the kids for her birthday last weekend.
I was preparing on Thursday evening for the kids to arrive when my daughter-in-law rang me. As soon as I picked up, I knew something was very wrong.
She was holding back tears and said they wouldn’t be going to the spa weekend because my son’s friend came to town and he said he wanted to spend the weekend with his friends catching up instead. I pressed her a little and was talking a little to her about her situation.
That’s when she came clean about him doing no chores, having no date nights, and her basically doing all of the child care because “that’s what stay-at-home moms do.”
I was honestly disgusted. I convinced her to drop off the kids to me and bring a friend to the spa. I even dipped into my savings to give her $500 to buy herself something nice. When she dropped off the kids, I begged her to tell me where my son was.
After five minutes of me pleading, she told me he was at the bar. She left for the spa while I left for this bar. She knew I was going there while my sister was taking care of the kids. Here’s where I might be the jerk. I walked in, sat down next to the group, and asked my son:
“Did I fail you as a mother or was it your father because we both thought your partner comes before your friends.” My son is angry at me for humiliating him and sticking my nose in his marriage. Maybe I should have stayed out, I don’t know. Story credit: Reddit / Classic-Goose-8228