Woman Kicks Mother-in-Law Out for Feeding Mushrooms to Her 10-Year-Old Daughter

After discovering that her mother-in-law was starving her child, one woman wanted to find out if she should feel bad about kicking her out of their home to protect their daughter from further interactions.

A Reddit user asked others if she was in the wrong for kicking her mother-in-law out of her house after her daughter told her she was doing something that she hated. The original poster (OP) said it had been going on without her or her husband knowing.

The woman said her daughter had revealed everything to them one night when her mother-in-law wasn't around. The OP explained that her mother-in-law cared for her daughter most nights while she and her husband were at work.

The OP shared that she and her husband are in the medical field and work long hours, meaning they don't often get home in the evenings to care for their daughter and cook her dinner, leaving her mother-in-law with the job.

How Did The OP's Mother-In-Law Care for Her Daughter?

The OP explained that because she and her husband were rarely home in time to cook dinner for their ten-year-old daughter, her mother-in-law had agreed to do it, saying that she loved cooking.

Many nights, as the OP and her husband were at work, they trusted that their daughter was being well cared for and eating the food her grandmother had cooked for her. However, this was not necessarily true.

One night, when the OP and her husband finally had a chance to be home for dinner and cook for their daughter, the OP's mother-in-law went to dinner with her friends. With her mother-in-law out of the house, the OP and her husband set about making dinner together. As the OP and her husband made dinner, their daughter entered the room with a strange request. She revealed:

"Susie [the couple's daughter] came to us crying, saying how she is sick and tired of being starved most nights and if we can please make her dinners instead of [mother-in-law]."

The OP and her husband were confused because their daughter felt starved when they thought her grandmother was providing meals for her while her parents were away.

What Did The Grandmother Feed Susie?

While her parents were away, Susie's grandmother fed her a food she had always hated. The OP said that her daughter had always hated mushrooms. She didn't like the taste, texture, or smell.

Whenever the OP's mother-in-law cooked for Susie, she cooked something with mushrooms. The OP revealed that her mother-in-law had made her daughter portobello mushroom burgers, mushroom pasta, and mushroom risotto.

Susie told her parents she had politely told her grandmother she didn't want to eat the food because it contained mushrooms. Still, her grandmother told her she would not make anything else to eat because she needed to get over her aversion to mushrooms.

The OP and her husband were extremely upset that their daughter was being sent to bed hungry because her grandmother refused to make her food without the one food she hated most. The OP also said her daughter ate most things, just not mushrooms.

When the OP's mother-in-law got home from dinner with her friends, the OP and her husband confronted her. However, the child's grandmother told them their daughter needed to overcome her hatred of mushrooms.

The OP told her mother-in-law she was starving her granddaughter, but the older woman disagreed, saying it was tough love. The OP's mother-in-law then told the OP she was a terrible mother who had prioritized her career over her daughter.

Having heard enough, the OP told her mother-in-law to leave her house because she did not appreciate disrespect. The older woman left but said nasty things as she did. The OP clarified:

"My husband is 100% on my side and feels that his mother is out of line."

The OP then said that she and her husband had been receiving messages from his two sisters and mother, telling them they were terrible people and saying Susie needed to get over herself. She then asked if she was in the wrong.

Many commenters said that because it was their home and their child, the OP and her husband were not wrong and that the child's grandmother had overstepped their boundaries and been rude to their daughter.

While this grandmother refused to feed her granddaughter anything other than the one food she didn't eat, another grandmother provided her grandchild precisely what they needed but was heavily criticized for it. Read the full story here.