I have a feeling this story from Reddit’s “Am I the A**hole?” page is gonna be a real barn burner!
Because this woman sounds pretty fired up…
And now it’s up to you to decide if you think she’s acting like a real jerk.
Read on to get all the details and let us know what you think.
AITA for losing it and telling in-laws to stop calling me “mama” and trying to erase my identity?
“I have 2 kids, 2f, 4f. I f**king h**e how everyone thinks of me as being just a mommy now. I don’t get to be my own person. I’m just mommy.
Husband doesn’t face this. He gets gifts from everyone that have to do with his hobbies. Me? I get a bunch of mommy s**t. Tee hee, mommy needs wine!
And like matching outfits. I don’t mean like, one of those cutesy matching pajama sets that the nurses and horse girls wear in their staged Christmas insta pics. I mean like, people actually think I’m going to go out in public wearing some cutesy matching outfits with my toddlers. As though I think they’re mini versions of myself? Or dolls?
From the time we got to the in-laws, it was “mama” this and “mama” that. At some point, my SIL said it and I said “You know my name is (Carmen), right?” she just looked at me funny and said “Of course, silly?” I said “So why do you keep calling me “mama”? You aren’t going around calling (husband) papa?” SIL just looked at me like I had 2 heads and was like “Um, okay.”
This went on all over Christmas. Here you go, mama. Want another slice, mama?
At that point I was just like “Do you guys mind calling me by my name instead of calling me mama?”
The same SIL as before did the whole golly-gee doe eyed thing and said “But you’re such a good mama!”
I said that I’m not JUST a mom. I gestured to the things that husband got for Christmas from them, and said “Why didn’t you guys get him anything that says “papa”? Everything you gave me is somehow related to me being a mom. Why does HE get to be his own person?”
MIL grabbed my hand and squeezed it and said that she was sorry that she made me feel like this. She was just “so excited” about being a grandma and she never really thought of things like that.
I was feeling a little better until SIL2 and SIL3 started going after me. One of them did that whole “Are you okay? Do you need to talk someone? You sound so angry, it isn’t healthy” faux concern thing that’s meant to shame you for having any emotional response.
The other one was angry and saying that “is being a mom somehow beneath you” and “do you think you’re better than the rest of us?” and all that.
When we finally left, he asked me why I’d kept it in for so long, and I said that I haven’t. No one listened to me before. I’ve said these things plenty of times. I’ve always asked them to call me by my name and not some disgusting nickname that boils me down to giving birth. He nodded, but said that I’d put a big pallor on the weekend and that I need to apologize for the outburst at some point.
I said sure, as soon as SILs apologize to me for dehumanizing me for years.
We’re at a stalemate. AITA?”
Now let’s see how Reddit users reacted.
One reader said this woman is owed an apology and she owes them nothing.
Photo Credit: Reddit
Another person said she might never actually get that apology…
Photo Credit: Reddit
And this Reddit user said she’s NTA and they offered a plan of attack….
Photo Credit: Reddit
What do you think about this story?
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