Woman Goes Topless to Dinner in Fight with Mother-in-Law -- Internet Applauds

The new mother, hailing from Germany, shared her story to Reddit seeking advice after both her mother-in-law and husband blew up on her, with a post titled, "AITA for Coming to Dinner Basically Topless?"

While she received overwhelming support, many a Redditor had theories about her in-laws dynamics and had a few thoughts regarding her husband.

Read on to see her entire tale, and the questions she hilariously answered in the comments.

"I've dreaded posting for a while because I'm afraid I might be the AH [a--hole]," the woman cautiously began her post in the anonymous forum. "But I just gotta know. So here goes."

She then proceeded to explain that her husband's parents and his brother came for a monthlong visit from Italy after she had a baby.

"For context if it makes any difference, I'm German, husband and his family are Italian," she continued, giving more background. "The baby was 3 months old at the time and I breastfeed her. Usually I'd just nurse on the couch in the living room but because company was staying, I'd go to my bedroom."

"After I nursed her, she'd fall asleep and take a nap and I'd have some free time," OP [original poster] recounted. "Since family was visiting, I tried to plan her naps around our mealtime to spend time with family uninterrupted. My mother in law has this thing that when food is on the table, you be there pronto. Sometimes I'd be late coming to a meal because babies can be unpredictable and she wouldn't fall asleep right away or nursed longer than normal. To this my mother in law would barge into my room and announce food was ready, all impatient. This startled the baby and made the process last much longer than it should have. The result is I had to eat much later than everyone else, alone, and the food was cold. It left me fuming. More work to do with the baby and I'm secluded."

She went on to explain that his occurred several times, prompting her to have a conversation with her husband, pleading with him to speak with his mother about how disruptive this behavior was.

"He talked to her but she still did all this anyway," she said, before revealing her own brilliant solution.

"So I simply decided to stop being late to the dinners," OP wrote. "The next time she barged in my room and announced food was ready, I came without hesitation. I came to the table exactly as I was. No shirt, half a bra, baby hanging on one tit."

She then explained that nothing could actually be seen, as her baby's head covered the exposed breast.

Of course that didn't matter to her MIL, as OP went on to describe the response: "Ensue uproar. Goes something like: MIL exclaims what the hell I'm doing at the table like this. I'm indecent, there are men at the table. I should be ashamed. I yell back what the hell does she keep calling me to the table for if I'm not yet ready. I have no reason to be in my room alone with my baby while everyone else is out having a great time together. Brother and FIL are trying not to get in on the argument. Husband ushers me back to my room and scolds me, taking his mother's side."

She then demonstrated more grace towards her husband than many on the internet believed he deserved, explaining that "he gets I'm frustrated but this action didn't help anything."

Nonetheless her actions resulted in an actual solution.

"After that MIL didn't bother again while I was busy with the baby," she concluded. "So what if I came to some meals a little after everyone had started eating. The roof didn't cave in! Anyways everyone lived happily ever after. The end. AITA?"

As already noted, Reddit celebrated OP for her crafty and liberating solution -- with some lauding it as a "well-placed piece of malicious compliance" and others simply stating "I love you. YOU were perfect."

However, there were those with more inquiring minds seeking answers or offering advice.

As one Redditor put it:

"BIL and FIL are likely keeping out of it, because

"a)she's not worth the pain of dissent

"b) they were in awe of you standing up to your beach MIL

"Your husband is most likely taking her side because she has always been the boss of her household, and he needs to develop a spine strong enough to support you against his mother."

Which elicited this response from OP: "Have you met these people before? You're spot on about everything. She's not worth the hassle and she's dominant in the household. My husband tries hard to support me and get out of his mother's grip, I'm sure it was a shock to see me show up at the table like that. I'm usually quite reserved."

While another Redditor took the opportunity to respond in the thread: "You are NTA. You're the new matriarch and MIL has been usurped by your glorious tits!" -- which got a laughing/crying emoji from OP in reply.

"Damn, you'd think a woman whose had at least 2 children would've figured out generally how babies work by now," another commenter noted.

"Right? And she breastfed as well," the new mother explained in response.

Elsewhere, she wrote on the same topic: "Babies don't comply to approximate dinner times. But you must be very understanding and warm hearted to not mind talking over a screaming baby at meal time."

"Oh yeah that was a thing too," she went on to recall. "Even [my MIL] didn't comply to her own damn meal time. For example she said we'll eat at 5. I got the baby put down 4:45-4:50. But we didn't eat until 6:20?"

While another humorous comment went deep into the sarcasm:

"Madam. Maybe you don’t understand this. There were men at the table.

"Men.

"Jesus Christ. Not the a--hole. And your husband kinda sucks."

"Men who [have] never seen boobs before? Maybe its cultural," OP replied with her own snark.

Which prompted this comment from another Reddit comedian: "Yep, Italian men have never seen breasts. Or pizza. Cultural things, ya know!"

What do you think?