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‘My partner was raised by a boy-mum - I’m convinced she wanted to marry him’

When Sarah met her boyfriend’s mother for the first time, she thought it would be the start of a lovely friendship. She was wrong.

How to be a good mother-in-law

A woman has recounted the horror she faced while dating a man who had a “boy-mum”.

Sarah had been dating her ex-boyfriend for a short while when she met his mother for the first time. 

But within four days of being introduced to her, things started to get weird

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Sarah was horrified. Picture: imtheproblem/TikTok
Sarah was horrified. Picture: imtheproblem/TikTok

“She fancied her own son - I think she wanted to marry him”

It began when her MIL began to ignore Sarah while they were in the apartment. 

“Some mornings, we’d wake up, and my boyfriend would have gone to [football] training, and it was just me and her,” Sarah said in the video

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The British influencer would be sitting in the kitchen when her MIL would walk past, open the front door and leave the apartment without saying a word to her.  

“She would just slam the door, adios,” Sarah said. “And that would be after I said ‘good morning’ to her.”

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The “awkward” behaviour didn’t stop there. “She constantly fat-shamed me,” Sarah said, adding she was compared to a “Shetland pony”. 

“It did really hurt me at the time,” she confessed, adding she was encouraged to weigh herself on the scale in front of her MIL and other guests. 

Her MIL was clearly not a big fan of Sarah, constantly spilling life-changing secrets before denying she ever said anything and causing arguments in front of family members. 

It got to a point where the MIL accused Sarah of “being jealous of her” and the “bond” she shares with her son. 

The things my ex-mother-in-law said and did with her son's permission

Sarah noted that her boyfriend hadn’t been in contact with his mother for over 11 years, so the idea of their bond being watertight seemed a bit unbelievable in Sarah’s eyes. “But yeah, I’m jealous of their bond,” she sarcastically said. 

But that didn’t matter; apparently, this was a common occurrence for Sarah’s MIL, as everyone was always raging with jealousy when they spent time with her. 

The comments became so frequent that Sarah was convinced her MIL “fancied her own son” because she wouldn’t stop comparing herself to every other woman in his life. “I think she wanted to marry him,” she stated.

The idea of someone’s MIL being ‘in competition” with their son’s partner was baffling to Sarah, as she was raised to see motherhood in a different way.

“I come from a family where my mum is not in competition with me,” Sarah said. “I don’t see mother figures as someone I need to be jealous of because I see them as loving and caring.” 

She has since split up with her boyfriend, but she’d never forget her ex-MIL’s behaviour.  

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The MIL's behaviour raised plenty of red flags. Picture: imtheproblem/INstagram
The MIL's behaviour raised plenty of red flags. Picture: imtheproblem/INstagram

“My ex’s mum called me ‘the son snatcher’”

Sarah was far from the only person to experience a nasty MIL, with her videos quickly attracting thousands of comments from other victims of “boy mums”. 

“My ex’s mum used to call me ‘the breeder’. I feel ya!” a comment read. “My ex’s mum called me ‘the son snatcher’,” said another. 

“My ex’s mother got his old wedding album out on the first day I met her,” a woman chimed in. 

“My ex’s mum called me lazy for not having a pristine house two days after I had a c-section,” a mother lamented. “I was also useless for not being able to cook a three-course meal three days postpartum.”

Seriously, so many people have experienced similar stories. 

“My ex once said, ‘Do you ever feel like your mum is flirting with you?’” read a comment. “I couldn’t believe he said that out loud - so strange.” 

And it wasn’t restricted to only mothers, either. “This was my ex-SIL,” someone wrote. “She hated me in the weirdest way, treated me like I was competition.”

Originally published as ‘My partner was raised by a boy-mum - I’m convinced she wanted to marry him’

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/my-partner-was-raised-by-a-boymum-im-convinced-she-wanted-to-marry-him/news-story/f5aaac268de20fa8dc7b11e7cc4a6390