Her Mother-In-Law Kept Rearranging The Kitchen To Suit Her Shorter Son, But His Wife Has Had Enough
by Mila Cardozo
Getting unsolicited advice can be uncomfortable.
But having someone rearrange your things in your home without asking can feel downright offensive.
In this woman’s case, because she is taller than her husband, they made a few adjustments.
When her mother-in-law disrespected this, she called her out on it.
Now she’s wondering if she should have just put up with it.
Let’s analyze the situation.
AITA for telling my MIL if she keeps rearranging my Kitchen she can get a hotel room?
I (29 years old, female) am married to a wonderful man (30 years old, male) who is also the brother of my best friend.
Our heights are very different with me being 6’6″ (~1.98 m) and him being 5’7″ (~1.70 m).
They have a big difference in height, so their home needed to reflect that.
All of his family are on the short side and it led to some adjustments in our living arrangements at first but we found what worked for us.
We realized early on that it was easier for him to use a step stool to reach what he needed in the kitchen than for me to constantly be crouching to get what I needed as that gets painful quickly for me.
This was fine, until my MIL came to stay with us two weeks ago.
Her roof needs repairs and my husband and I have a spare room while my best friend doesn’t, so it was only logical she come stay with us.
But it wasn’t a breeze.
She has constantly been moving things about in the kitchen, lowering items as she doesn’t want to use the step stool, which isn’t anything to do with her age or fearing she’ll fall; she just doesn’t want to.
She keeps harping on about how it’s ridiculous everything is so high up and it’s rude for guests.
It was apparent that she wasn’t taking her daughter-in-law’s height into consideration.
My husband has repeatedly shut her down stating my comfort matters more than theoretical guests, and asked her not to move things.
She lets it go for a day then things are moved again.
I’ve expressed frustration to my husband about this and the final straw came today.
When I went to make myself a coffee and could not find my coffee mugs anywhere, it took me five minutes to find them in the lower cabinet that I had to kneel to get them out of.
Things reached a boiling point quickly after that.
I was angry and snappish at this as my back had hurt from getting my mug.
I told her if she couldn’t stop herself from rearranging my kitchen she could get a hotel room as I have had enough of her entitlement.
This led to a lot of blustering and some tears.
She said that she was just trying to make it “make more sense” and how this is her son’s home and how it’s just a little reorganization.
She also said they shouldn’t all suffer just because I’m tall.
She then also began to say how I’m heartless to expect her to stay in a hotel over the holidays.
Things got dramatic, but she had her husband on her side.
My husband was clearly uncomfortable at this and didn’t want his mother upset, but he told her that it wasn’t just his home, but mine too, and if she wouldn’t respect my comfort and happiness then she would have to leave.
She has gone into the guest room and I can hear her crying still.
He defended her while respecting his mother, but she is unsure about the whole situation.
My husband is clearly getting anxious and upset over this but he’s not backing down.
I feel awful that my snapping led to him feeling like this.
Maybe I should have just put up with it or been more gentle about how I dealt with it?
I honestly don’t care that she’s upset which may make me sound heartless but I hate that my husband is feeling this way.
AITA?
Her mother-in-law stepped over the line.
Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this situation.
A reader shares their thoughts and advice.
Me neither!
Someone shares how their mom deals with a similar situation.
This commenter offers another perspective.
Another reader chimes in.
This person keeps it to the point!
She really needed to be called out on her behavior.
Talk about overstepping.
If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.