Readers Tell Us About the Worst Gifts Their In-Laws Gave Them 

I’m not “besties” with my mother in law, and she thought her son was too good to marry me. But after 29 yrs, we’ve matured and are caring to each other. After reading these, I will NEVER complain about her again!

These are the kinds of people who sit alone in the assisted living facility, wondering why they never have visitors.

I used to get along with my mother in law, until this year, my husband and I have been married for 25years. Three years ago she begged us to come stay with her because she was lonely and because she was in her 60s we caved( we were also at that time looking into buying a house because we saved money to be able to do so) But after we moved in i started noticing our money disappearing and when I asked my husband, his excuse was mom needed this done to the house or that needed fixed, ALL of which she told me she was paying for. Then when all of our savings were gone which took three years, we were so kindly licked out and she sold the house that we renovated for 300,000 dollars. We saw nothing from it and we were homeless with our kids and animals until literally last week. She had the nerve to ask my husband to go to her new house to fix the roof leak because she couldn't afford to pay a professional... My husband is a professional contractor by the way. So again ahe expected him to do more work without compensation and she expected him to pay for materials. Thankfully he told her to get bent. I hate greedy people.

My mother in law was just great. She wasn't great at finding the right presents, but she was a decent and kind woman, and who cares about the presents, she was a person of great character and who could ask for more. And she loved my son more than anything. That'll do.

These are so sad, many of them quite distresssing to think people woud do that.

My MIL, God rest her soul, was a kind gentle upper-class Southern lady, and I was a clueless California surfer girl. She was always kind to me, and I was an idiot. I never appreciated her until it was too late 😪.

I got lucky. My MIL was good to me from the day we met until her death, which was more than 30 years.

At family dinners, my MIL sat her son at the adult table, and sat me at the children's table.

My mother in law was a lovely lady. I missed her more than my own mother when she died. Sadly, my husband died shortly afterwards. I hope they're together. (I'm a young widow and seeing people reacting to me is funny. The ladies hold on to their husbands a bit tighter.) 😂😁😂

I've been married for 41 years and in all that time I've never received one gift. We have 2 sons, they've never received a gift, card, or phone call. Recently, MIL asked my husband if she could borrow some money.....I said "Borrow? No, no! We're family! I'll tell you what.... we'll give you a thousand dollars for each card and gift you've ever sent!" Silence on her end. We haven't heard from her since. 😅

My MIL gave me a sequined leotard for Christmas. Somehow, I managed to thank her with a straight face. I saw the price tag still on it, so I attempted to return it. After considerable detective work, the store manager determined the leotard had been sold on clearance several years before. They gave me a couple bucks for my trouble and threw it away. The next Christmas, after everyone opened their gifts, my MIL took me aside and asked about the leotard. Unbeknownst to me, she had tried to include me in a family tradition where all the women regift each other terrible Christmas gifts. I was supposed to pass the leotard onto someone else. Oops. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I didn’t realize until many years into my marriage that my MIL thought I was hinting that I wanted her stuff any time I paid her a compliment on something.

Great gifts I received include: The wedding gift from the inlaws was a single fitted bed sheet. Anniversary gift from my mother. She asked what I wanted and suggested a frying pan. I said no I don't need any frying pans. Yep. Got a new frying pan.

My mother-in-law doesn't know she is my mother-in-law! 36 years and she still don't know that we are married!

I've had similar problems. Sometimes you just have to try to forget it. You can throw Anniversary parties, babysit the dog, bail people out of jail, bring them soup, weed their yard...they will still complain about you, gossip about you, ignore you, and a step-grandchild is invisible.

My ex husband owned a business. Ex MIL was in charge of the monetary aspect of it. When he got his tax refund, he put the money back into the business. She gave us back the money as a "wedding present."

Some of these sound awful and a few of them sound like spoiled people complaining about the only gifts that a person without much money could afford

I got a sweater from a bargain store with no tags that was the wrong size every year for Christmas for about a decade. Whatever. (My MIL would demand and get exactly what she wanted from all of us, but didn’t really care about what she wrapped and put under the tree for most of the family.) However, my in-laws did similar things to my husband, but intentionally bought him nice clothes that were the wrong size ( too small and he’s a big guy) for years and it really hurt his feelings. I finally asked my MIL and my SIL to please stop buying him clothes that didn’t fit and explained that he really liked them, but it was hurting his feelings that they never fit. My SIL suggested that he could consider it a goal to get into them. I looked at her and my MIL and said that I hoped they both looked forward to enjoying the size medium sweaters they would be receiving from us in the future (both are plus size ladies) so they would see how that feels. And that 💩 finally stopped.🙄

My mil was an ass to me for decades, but now she and my fil are ancient and guess who takes care of them? Yeah, now I’m “a gift from God”.

Wow, i feel for everyone

Try this one. My own mother hated me and my in-laws loved me.

My brother and his two then brother in laws each got a button down with the logo of his ex mother in laws company on the chest. Turns out they were free gifts to staff and a couple of others didn’t want theirs either so they gave them to ex MIL.

3:37 I would love if this regifting story continued for years between them.

There is your sign, MIL doesn't like you 🤷