It’s sad to say, but it seems (based on the internet) that there are far more in-laws who are trouble than those who make us feel blessed to have extra family.

OP’s MIL is a snooper – and a liar, as she denies snooping. OP’s had enough, so she and her husband agreed to start locking the doors to their bedroom and office when they came over.

For some weird reason my MIL really wants to go into our bedroom whenever she comes over. On one occasion I followed her as she went upstairs (i was going to get something for my child as the bedrooms are upstairs) and she walked past the bathroom on the main floor and up the stairs behind it.

She didn’t hear me and I caught her walking straight into my room and rifling through bills on my dresser. She denied snooping (even though I’d just watched her do it) and said she was just going to use our bathroom because she couldn’t find the other ones.

She walked right past the one on the main floor and another one in the upstairs hallway to go into our bedroom.

Since that happened, I installed an exterior doorknob that requires a key on our bedroom door and one on the door to our office/spare bedroom.

However, she’s still always “forgetting” where the bathroom is and trying the bedroom and office door. This really ticks me off.

My husband says that I just get annoyed at this because everything she does drives me crazy and since we’ve put locks on the rooms we don’t want her in, there isn’t really a problem anymore.

This worked for awhile, but then one time she couldn’t find the keys and her husband said not to worry, he was sure his mom had learned her lesson.

Well over the holidays we had my in laws over for dinner and before they came I was searching for the bedroom keys. We hadn’t used them in a while since we only lock the doors when MIL comes over.

My husband told me we didn’t need to lock the doors since she wouldn’t try to get into the rooms and I insisted that she would because she loves to snoop.

We went back and forth and decided to cover the doorknobs in super fine glitter to see if she tried them.

He even made sure she knew where the downstairs bathroom was, and instructed his family not to go upstairs.

Husband goes out of his way to show his mom the main floor bathroom when they got here and specifically asks his parents and sister not to go upstairs.

There’s a baby gate so the kids can’t get upstairs either.

OP had little faith that her MIL would comply, so she rigged glitter traps on both doors.

I did this once before when husband didn’t believe me about the snooping to prove she’d been in the rooms.

Last time she ignored the glitter and we didn’t say anything about it but then my husband couldn’t deny that she’d tried to snoop.

So this time I covered the knobs in glitter and for the office went a touch further and rigged a little folder of glitter over the door to the office before the in laws came over. I left it one side unlocked (French doors) and it was set so if you walked in the room you would get covered in glitter.

Sure enough her MIL came downstairs covered in glitter, and then screamed at OP for…getting glitter on her?

Well guess who had to go to the bathroom and got covered in glitter and had it all over their hands and hair?

She completely lost it and started screaming at me so I yelled back.

Her husband thinks she went too far, her SIL thinks the whole thing is funny and her FIL is not getting involved.

Now my husband is saying I went too far and I’m the jerk.

MIL also says I’m the jerk but SIL says I didn’t do anything wrong and MIL deserved it for snooping. FIL is Switzerland.

Apparently her car is ruined now too because it’s covered in glitter that she cant get cleaned up.

So AITA?

You know Reddit is about to weigh in, though!

The top comment says her husband is actually a bigger issue than her MIL.

This person has been there and hopes OP’s husband changes her tune.

Everyone is pretty curious about what the MIL thinks she will find.

People are particularly outraged that he turned on her after agreeing to the trap!

No one thinks OP is overreacting.

This whole situation is bizarre to me.

I can’t imagine going into someone else’s house, blatantly ignoring their boundaries, and then getting mad when they busted me doing just that. Wild.