Woman Buying Fake Pregnancy Test To Catch Mother-In-Law 'Snooping' Praised

Mothers-in-laws can be very hard to deal with, especially when they feel jealous of you, or when they start intruding into your marriage.

That's why a woman who thought her mother-in-law was "snooping" around her bedroom planned a trap and caught her in the act—and the internet is backing her up.

In a post shared on Reddit on Monday, under the username u/Milathrowaway37, the woman explained that since her mother-in-law moved in with her and her husband a few weeks ago, she's started noticing things around her bedroom being moved around, and even though nothing ever got taken or damaged, she didn't feel right about it.

When she told her concerns to her husband he got defensive and said his mom "would never..." so in order to prove her "huge hunch" she decided to set a trap to catch her.

Since she couldn't set up a webcam in her bedroom, she threw a fake positive pregnancy test in the trashcan, near her wardrobe, to see what her mother-in-law's reaction would be, and her gut feeling wasn't wrong at all.

She said: "Literally the next day after I got to work, I got tons of calls and texts from my inlaws "congratulating" me for my "pregnancy". My husband came over to my workplace and was all worked up about it asking since when I was pregnant, and why I didn't tell him."

A survey by Pew Research Center shows that overall, 55 percent of American adults live within an hour's drive of at least some of their extended family members. While 28 percent of them live near all or most of their extended family, and 27 percent live near some extended family.

Marni Goldman, a spiritual life coach and author of True To Myself: Peace, Love, Marni, told Newsweek that if there is one game in life a woman will never win, it's "the game with the mother-in-law."

She said: "It's exhausting and excruciating trying to explain yourself to [your mother-in-law] and then getting upset with your husband (who's supposed to love and protect you) now play the victim for you reacting?!? It's like [an] emotional tug-of-war.

According to Goldman, the mother-in-law sounds like a "very rude disrespectful woman," who is projecting all of her negative energy onto the poster.

"Literally, this is somebody disrespecting every boundary you have. Not only should the mother-in-law not feel hurt, she's lucky she was able to stay there in the first place. Communication is so crucial in a relationship. Had this been a healthy marriage, they would've communicated each other's concerns."

She added that this relationship has "toxic written all over it," while in truth marriage is supposed to be a partnership with trust and loyalty, and her husband needs to heal his mommy issues.

The post has gone viral on the platform, receiving over 28,300 upvotes and 4,000 likes so far.

The original poster said of the incident: "I asked how he found out and he said his mom found the positive test in the trashcan in the bedroom. I asked if his answer just confirmed that she's been snooping in the bedroom all along.

"He had a "realization" moment but demanded we stick to the bigger issue, I said there was no bigger issue because the positive test was fake and this whole thing was done to expose my MIL's snooping. he was not convinced. he had me take an actual test right infront of him and he was livid asking how could I lie about such thing and break his mom's heart."

One user, babymargaret, commented: "[Not The A*****], but ordering a lock for the door and kicking MIL out seems easier. If you WERE preg, how dare she announce it. So many red flags, one of you needs to go and it shouldn't have to be you."

And nopatients4this said: "Seems that you have several problems. The mother-in-law snooping is obvious. However, your husband is the bigger problem. He doesn't seem to have any problem with his mother ignoring boundaries. I don't even want to get into 'He had you take an actual test in front of him!' He needs to grow up and stop being a momma's boy and learn to trust his wife's word."

Another user, gastropodia42, wrote: "[Not The A******] You told no lies. Even if you were pregnant she had [no] right to announce it to the world. Sounds like one of you girls should move out. I wonder which one your husband would prefer."

Newsweek reached out to u/Milathrowaway37 for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.

Updated 12/12/22, 9.30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information from the Reddit threat.