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AITA for telling my poor MIL she can't be "shopping" at our store for free?
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This conversation had to happen sooner or later; it's a shame that our narrator had to do it in the end and take the “blame" for a result that both he and his wife wanted.
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It's just complete and total entitlement. It sounds like MIL never even asked if it was okay to take their stuff, and it's not like she ever showed gratitude or appreciation for being allowed to do so up until the point that our narrator asked her to stop. Those sorts of things can go a long way, but she didn't even think about being considerate because she felt like she was owed free things.
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Entitled mom steals from daughter's convenience store business, son-in-law tells her she can't “shop for free” anymore: ‘When it was small things, I would let it pass, [but] it's getting out of hand'
Where do you draw the line between doing someone a favor and getting taken advantage of for your kindness? Well, that's kind of up to you and the boundaries that you set; it's all about communication. If the situation is one-sided, born of entitlement, and lacks reciprocity, then it's time to draw the line! However, when it comes to family, especially parents, it can be really hard to even determine what your boundaries are and even more difficult to voice them.
It took me several years to start speaking up when my parents crossed a line with me because I felt like I owed them everything – even my time and privacy. Once I voiced what I was okay with and what I was not, our relationship got a whole lot better. I'm not sure how the relationship in the thread below could possibly get any better, though. The mom wasn't just waltzing into her daughter's home without knocking or expecting her to pick up the phone at all odd hours of the night, she was straight up, openly stealing from her daughter's business. Her son-in-law had to be the one to lay down the law. Scroll down to see how that went.