MIL Drafts Contract Over How Many Kids Bride and Groom Can Have

We all know our in-laws can step over the line in all sorts of ways, but weddings are especially notorious.  People bring out their freak flags during wedding planning in unimaginable ways – and this MIL is no exception.     After all, it doesn’t take much for a wedding to go from your wedding to theirs in a blink of an eye.  This becomes especially tricky if the in-laws are the ones paying.

Such was the harsh reality of soon to be bride after her future MIL offered to pay for her wedding.  Midway through planning FMIL asked both her and her fiancé to sign a contract promising they would only have one child.   Maybe the bride should have known about the “one kid” clause before she agreed to the wedding!

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Bride wanted to elope but MIL wanted a big wedding and planned one with 6 digit price tag

The bride explained in her recently deleted Reddit post that she was surprised when her fiancé’s mom volunteered to pay for the wedding.  “She’s mainly the one who wanted it to be a large affair anyway,” she wrote.

But after many deposits for venues, service providers had been paid and dates finalized, her future MIL sprung something on the couple that left them speechless.

“MIL suddenly presented us with a contract stating that I am only allowed to have one child and must immediately get on contraception after his/her birth,” the bride wrote. “I have literally never heard of anyone being in a remotely similar situation to this before and am pretty sure it has no legal standing at all.”

Now that Deposits have been made and many plans set MIL gives couple ultimatum:  Either sign the contract or she’ll stop paying for the wedding MIL planned!

“This wedding has gotten extremely expensive (in the hundred thousands), and while we are grateful, the fiancé and I were planning on eloping to begin with since we couldn’t afford it and had no desire to have a large celebration. I’m not even sure I want more than one child but it just seems absolutely INSANE that anyone would have a say in that aside from me and the father.”

Social media weighed in: Cancel everything, leave her with the bill and elope.

Comments:

“Cancel it all and walk away,” wrote one person. “Elope with your SO and do not let her control anything else in your life.”

They also were sure to let her know that her MIL was straight-up NUTS to make a request like that.

“Cancel the wedding, elope and cut the crazy [expletive] off,” another added.

But when it came to the eloping suggestion, the bride said that wouldn’t be so easy. 

“I’ve looked into it and cancelling would still mean we’d have to pay for all the things that have been booked already or pay her back for anything that has had a deposit put down,” she explained.

However, someone else wasn’t so sure things would go down like that.

“Unless it’s in your name I wouldn’t even make the effort,” the person advised. “That’s her [expletive] tax. How does your [Future Husband] feel about this dumb [expletive] children ultimatum? Is it possible she doesn’t actually have the $$ for the wedding and is hoping you cancel the wedding so she’s not on the hook for it anymore?”

In a follow-up response: Bride shares contracts and deposits all in MIL name and this behavior is unusual for the MIL.

First, she explained that all of the contracts for her wedding are in her MIL’s name only, but she insists it hasn’t seemed like a control thing.

“She has been nothing but generous and considerate thus far, so this contract seems extremely out of the ordinary for her behavior,” the bride said. “She has never displayed this kind of controlling behavior before and we aren’t sure where it is coming from.”

Especially since in the past, her MIL seemed excited for grandchildren. 

“She occasionally makes comments about how she will spoil our child in ways that we cannot,” the bride explained, “and that she has no problem sending our child to schools and programs that are out of our reach.” 

Maybe this behavior didn’t totally coming from left field?

“She is the type who always has lawyers on retainer if need be,” the bride said, adding that now she’s afraid if they don’t comply with her wishes, she’ll try and foot them with the wedding bill. “She has not yet stated that she will use the court of law against us, but with the contract and everything I’m afraid it is a possibility.”

The fiancee believes this will all blow over.  “He is as surprised as I am at his mother, but he doesn’t think she could possibly try to uphold the contract in the future.”  In short, he thinks she’s bluffing, and that eventually, she’ll get over it and “won’t care how many kids we pop out when the time comes.”  “He thinks she’ll love them regardless,” she adds (which, I mean, I sure hope so!). “But I can tell he is a bit nervous about testing her and worried about why she’s acting this way.”

The whole situation is downright uncomfortable and completely inexplicable. “We’ve never discussed with her in detail how many children we’ve wanted as the fiancé and I aren’t even sure,” the bride continued. “We cannot think of any reasons why she might want us to limit our offspring. The fiancé and I both have siblings that we love very much.”

The bride is still trying to give the MIL the benefit of the doubt, after all she has been supportive and welcoming and this seems out of character.  We disagree!  Too many red flags!