A newlywed couple have described their guilt after telling one of their parents she couldn't move in with them when she gets divorced.
The husband says he married his wife just a couple of months ago and they live together in a house that he bought before the pair tied the knot. Sharing their story on the social media website Reddit, he said his mother-in-law has been contemplating divorce from his wife's stepdad for years and feels she is finally ready to start the process soon.
He said his mother-in-law asked the couple if she could live with them for a few months while she starts her new life. But they said no.
He told Reddit: "Her reaction was pretty bad and we felt awful. In the end we told her if it was between her living on the street and living with us, of course we’d help her out. But we feel there’s a lot of other ways she can go about this and our home should be a last resort.
"We explained that we’ve just begun our lives as a married couple and we need to put our relationship first. It’s also a small house and I don’t see it being practical to have her living with us."
He added that both he and his mother-in-law work from home and that he thinks that would cause huge disruption to their lives "among other things like intimacy with my wife, feeling comfortable in my own home, etc".
The couple's dilemma was greeted with sympathy by the online community. In a comment upvoted 2,300 times, ariesgal11 wrote: "You and your wife are doing a great job maintaining boundaries with your mother-in-law. It' not your responsibility to house her. Like you said if she literally has nowhere else to go that's a different story but I'm sure there are other options for her."
User KarmaRanOverMyDogma replied: "Unless your mother-in-law is in immediate danger, she needs to plan her divorce. You say she works, why would she be homeless?
"If money is tight, she could find a roommate situation. It sounds like she's thinking more about her comfort and convenience than her daughter's."
Noting that the mother-in-law had been considering divorce for years, they added: "If she's got months to plan it out, she's got months to save up and find a place of her own."
- Do you agree with Redditors on this one? Let us know in the comments.
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