My wife’s grandmother is… not all there. Her husband passed away in 2018, and the rest of the family had to make her see sense that she could not live in their countryside home by herself anymore. She has issues with falling, and her driving is atrocious; her husband once bought her a brand-new car, and two weeks later, it was totaled. After spending the better part of a month trying to get her to face reality, she finally agreed to come back to live in the same town as the rest of us so her son, my father-in-law, could be close by in case of an emergency.

For some reason, [Wife’s Grandmother] always preferred her other son, who lived two states away and had hardly ever really helped her with anything — not that she helped him with much, either. When my wife and I were getting married, his car broke down and he asked her to borrow $250 to rent a car to make it here for his niece’s wedding. She refused, even though she was entirely able to, and we still don’t know why outside of simple greed.

[Wife’s Grandmother] had also been screwing over her late husband’s children with his previous wife and essentially managed to ensure that they saw basically zero of his inheritance and she cleaned house. Meanwhile, the rest of us were obligated to literally clean her old house as we gathered her stuff — and there was A TON of it — to move back with us. She ended up with approximately $250,000 from inheritance, pensions, life insurance, etc. That number would never stay that high for long, however.

She’s also extremely paranoid — in all the wrong places. She’s accused every family member at least once of stealing something. After we cleaned the house, she accused me of taking a package of plain white T-shirts that had belonged to her husband as if I couldn’t just go to the store and buy some myself. My wife also assured me that even if I was so desperate for clothes, he would’ve just let me have them, but no, it had to be a big deal with [Wife’s Grandmother].

She also had a friend of hers convince her that her son was stealing from her because of a fallen object in her house; she had knocked it over when she left but only saw it when she came back. But then, when she called the police, she answered the door with a GUN IN HAND. The cop immediately disarmed her but I think didn’t take her seriously after that.

My father-in-law, due to [Wife’s Grandmother] mental issues and paranoia, has been trying to gain power of attorney over her so that if she does something stupid he can try to fix it.

Unfortunately, [Wife’s Grandmother]’s stupid actions are not just a one-off occurrence. Somehow, despite how she accuses her family of stealing from her, she will meet men online and believe every word they say as gospel truth and then insist on flying states away to go meet them. Of course, every one of them usually just cooks up a sob story and she’ll already have her wallet open.

[Wife’s Grandmother] provides her information to anyone who just asks, so it’s no mystery when she has her identity stolen. Unfortunately, because of this, she’s had tens of thousands of dollars either stolen or scammed out of her. When my father-in-law intercepted a transaction for a huge amount of money, he tried so hard to get the bank to undo it. When [Wife’s Grandmother] found how much money was missing, of course, she accused her son of stealing it.

Some of these scammers have photos online that are so obviously fake it hurts to even look at. On one of [Wife’s Grandmother]’s MANY Facebook accounts, we even saw her post pictures of two of the scammer’s fake photos, a ton of her valuables, and to top it all off, her own birth certificate and SSN card. We all begged her for weeks to take that post down, but I don’t think she ever did.

Wife: “Hey, come look at this.”

She shows me a picture of an older-looking man, pretty similar to the type [Wife’s Grandmother] has been regularly contacting.

Wife: “Does he look familiar?”

Me: “No? Should I recognize him from somewhere?”

Wife: “Yeah, I hope so, considering that’s me!”

In order to prove to her grandmother how easy it is to turn yourself into anything and anyone online, my wife took a picture of herself, a twenty-two-year-old woman, and applied several filter layers to transform into a seventy-year-old man. Looking closer, I recognize that those are indeed still her cheekbones and eyebrows. It took her all of five minutes, and she already has a Facebook profile set up for this pretend person and has sent [Wife’s Grandmother] a friend request.

I don’t know if she takes this particular bait, but the scams continue. Once again, my father-in-law tries to intercept a fraudulent transaction but is too late to stop it. It turns out that was literally the last of [Wife’s Grandmother]’s money saved from her husband’s passing. All $250,000 that he saved up his whole life for, which now would’ve gone to my father-in-law and uncle-in-law on her death, is completely gone after like the third time she’s had her identity stolen in less than two years. Now, all she is left with is her Social Security income and nothing else. About a week after this, she calls us.

Grandmother: “Hey, [Father-In-Law], there’s this man I met online. He says he needs major surgery but he’s short two thousand dollars. Could you help me send it to him?”

The Rest Of Us: *Groans exasperatedly*

I am out for dinner with my then-fiancée (now wife) and her dad, my (now) father-in-law. He’s not the nicest to her (he got divorced and remarried, and he loves his new kids more than my wife) and gives her grief over everything she does.

We’re at the end of dinner, and my father-in-law offers to pay for the meal. Okay, that’s surprisingly nice.

Fiancée: “I’ll ask to get my leftovers boxed and I’ll take them home.”

Father-In-Law: “You’ll just leave them in the fridge, and then they’ll just get thrown out.”

I’ve been hearing stuff like this all night, so I snap.

Me: “Listen, it’s not your fridge. Leave her alone.”

Father-In-Law: *Getting mad* “Don’t tell me how to raise my daughter!”

Me: “Then don’t speak to my fiancée that way!”

He literally throws the bill and folder at me.

Father-In-Law: “Fine! You f****** pay, then!”

He storms out, so I pay the bill and I’m just waiting for the receipt. We’re still waiting ten minutes later, so we’re wondering what is going on. Tensions are rising, and [Fiancée]’s dad is waiting outside, just building up steam and ready to blow once we get out there. I ask the waiter:

Me: “Can I just get our bill and go?”

Waiter: “Oh, no, sir, you have to wait for the manager.”

It turned out that they had a contest running where “every bill is a winner.” Normally, you’d win a free drink or appetizer with your next meal. Well, we won the GRAND PRIZE: a trip for four to Florida! Whoever paid got the prize.

We did not bring [Father-In-Law] on our free trip!

This story is part of our Even-More-Highest-Voted-Stories-Of-2023-(so far!) roundup!

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Back in the 1960s, my father-in-law took early retirement. He and my mother-in-law set about building their own house in rural Wales and lived in a small caravan on the site. He hired bricklayers and roofers but did everything else himself with help from my husband and me.

When he reached the stage of needing the interior walls plastered, he asked around but could not find a plasterer who was willing or available to do the job. Then, one day, a man came to the door and offered his services, saying he was a plasterer who had been made redundant and fallen on hard times, and he and his little dog were sleeping in a nearby farm’s barn.

[Father-In-Law] was a bit sceptical about his story, but [Mother-In-Law] looked at the dog and realised that, although the man looked scruffy, the dog was well-fed and happy. She persuaded [Father-In-Law] to give him a chance, so he was told to plaster one small room as a trial.

He made a great job of that room and was hired to do the rest of the house, while my [Mother-In-Law] made sure he had one good meal each day. With the money the plasterer made, he was able to find somewhere to stay. Following recommendations from my in-laws, he was able to get more work, and he went from strength to strength, all thanks to [Mother-In-Law] noticing that he had taken good care of his little dog through his rough times.

This story is part of our Highest-Voted-Inspirational-Stories-Of-2023-(so far!) roundup! This is the last story in the roundup, but we have plenty of others you might enjoy!

2022 Roundup: The Best Feel-Good Stories Of The Year!

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My husband and I are teaching our three-year-old about consent and not having to express affection with others if she doesn’t want to. We are visiting my in-laws and my daughter is busy playing. 

Mother-In-Law: “[Daughter], come give me a hug.”

Daughter: “Not right now.”

Mother-In-Law: “Awww, please?”

Daughter: “No, but we can do a high-five!”

Mother-In-Law: *Pouting* “I’ll cry if you don’t give me a hug. You don’t want Grandma to be sad, do you?”

Before my husband or I can say anything: 

Daughter: “That’s okay. You can be sad.”

[Mother-In-Law]’s face was priceless. I had to resist cackling but was pretty proud of our kiddo.

Afterward, we did have a conversation with [Mother-In-Law] about respecting boundaries and not trying to guilt our daughter. She did get on board quickly when we suggested that if she couldn’t agree, visits would stop.

My sister-in-law is nineteen and looking for her first job. She knows that a company I used to work for is hiring an administrative assistant, which was my job, so she stops by with her mother.

Sister: “What do you have to do?”

Me: “Payroll, timesheets, communicate with vendors, and order supplies. Sometimes you have to play mediator for issues.”

Mother: “That’s easy.”

Me: “The work itself isn’t hard, but it can be a lot. How are your computer skills?”

Sister: “Like Facebook?”

Me: “No, [Company] definitely does not want you on Facebook while you’re at work. How about typing, email communication, and notations for meetings?”

Sister: “Can someone else do that?”

Me: “No… that’s part of the job.”

Mother: “I’m sure someone else can take care of that. Just talk to [Manager] and tell him that [Sister] is good at it, and we’ll figure it out.”

Me: “Um… no? I’m not going to lie. That won’t look good for either of us.”

Mother: *Heavy sigh* “Look. She needs a job.”

Me: “Pretty much every fast food restaurant is hiring. It’s not a bad place to start.”

Mother: “Absolutely not.”

Sister: “I’m not doing food service. I can do your job; you just have to get me in.”

Me: “I can give you a reference, but I’m not going to say you’re more qualified than I know you are.”

Mother: “[My Name] you are impossible!”

Me: *Shrug* “Don’t list me if you don’t want me to be honest.”

[Sister] applied and listed me as a reference. I was honest about her skill level but added that I believed she could learn if someone took the time to work with her.

She was not hired, which was clearly my fault.