There is no shortage of people on the internet complaining about their in-laws.

What I can’t figure out is why more people don’t try to be considerate human beings to the people who love their children and vice versa.

OP works in theatre as a stage manager and loves her job.

So I work in technical theater as an assistant stage manager. There are a couple of theaters in the area but the tech community is rather small so we all know each other.

I work for a smaller theater but I know a few people who work at the largest theater that hosts the traveling Broadway shows. These shows are really popular and hard to get tickets for if you aren’t a season ticket holder and season tickets can run about 1,000 per seat for seven shows.

Tickets are normally about $150 for an individual show but can go up significantly if they know the show is going to be popular.

The husband of one of the directors that I work with is on the board of the theater and sometimes can score good seats at a discounted rate.

She got her mother-in-law some highly-sought-after tickets to a Broadway show.

This season, Aladdin is coming to town, a show my Future Mother-in-Law has been dying to see. She asked me if I could possibly get her and a friend a seat so they could go see it.

I called in a favor with my director and she managed to get two prime seats. Since her husband is on the board she gets a discount so the tickets ended up only being $75 for the two seats.

I reserved them in my name with the understanding that FMIL will pay for the tickets.

Then, she insulted her career choices in front of everyone.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and FMIL invites me and my fiancé over for dinner. Dinner goes well and I end up in a conversation with FMIL and FSIL about housework (idk why).

FSIL is a teacher and she is married to an accountant so she said that her and her husband try to split the chores 50/50. FMIL thought that was fine and asked how fiancé and I would do it (we don’t currently live together). I said “probably the same, ya know 50/50.”

FSIL agreed but FMIL gave me the stink eye. I asked if there was something wrong and she said “well fiancé works full time and you don’t so I don’t see how that’s fair.”

I told her that I do work full time just not at a 9-5 like fiancé. FMIL then laughed at me and said what I did wasn’t real work and that it was just a “silly side gig” and that maybe if I got a real job I would know what it is like to really work.

Then she changed the subject.

So, she canceled the tickets and told her tough luck.

This makes me mad because I am very proud of the work I do. It may not be a nine to five but I love my job. It is my dream job and I do make enough to cover my expenses. It actually takes a certain amount of skill to properly stage manage a full scale production.

So, enter pettiness.

I called up the box office for the large theater and told them to cancel the tickets. They were in my name so they gladly cancelled them.

I then texted FMIL and told her if she thinks my job isn’t real then the side perks aren’t real so the tickets were cancelled. I then shut off my phone.

The next day when I turn on my phone I see several missed calls and about a dozen texts from FMIL. She is fuming because her friend is coming into town specifically to see this play.

I called back and told her she might still be able to get seats if she called the box office. She ended up getting seats but they cost her $150 each and they weren’t as good.

Hopefully she’s learned not to insult someone and still expect to benefit from them.

Does Reddit think she was too sensitive? Let’s see!

The top comment says OP handled it exactly right.

Make it make sense.

Of course, some people cannot be reasoned with.

Respect is for everyone.

Their job is actually quite involved.

I can’t get over the hubris of this woman.

Insulting their job but wanting a favor from the job. Cringe.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.