She’s Skipping Christmas After Her In-Laws Brought Their Cats Inside, Even Though She’s Severely Allergic
Exhaustingly enough, this 33-year-old woman has been trying to survive her in-laws for 11 years. She admits she’s to blame for some of the stress, and there have been a few good moments sprinkled in with the bad.
To give you a high-level overview, her relationship with her in-laws has been marked with assumptions, avoidance, and miscommunication.
Things have gotten downright ugly on multiple occasions, and this year, she resolved to create some firm boundaries surrounding her in-laws.
She has spent close to a decade attempting to do this anyway, but she always caved. Not this year, though. She dug her heels in, and she knows these boundaries are healthier for her, her husband, and their children.
Also, the boundaries have really saved her mental health, which has suffered to the point where she was in a dark spot.
It seemed promising that perhaps Thanksgiving would go well given everything that’s happened, but it turned into such a disaster that she’s skipping Christmas with her in-laws.
Now, she’s been allergic to cats for pretty much her whole life, and her in-laws know this, as she’s been in their lives for 15 years.
Her allergies have progressed to be severe, and the latest incident left her suffering from an asthma attack for 24 hours straight. That was accompanied by sneezing, irritated eyes, and hives.
“At Thanksgiving, my in-laws didn’t tell me that their once outside cats (that I already had reactions to) are now living inside,” she explained.
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“I showed up to two cats in the kitchen. I turned wide-eyed to my husband and excused myself to the bathroom. They removed the cats, so they didn’t think it would be a problem. My eyes were puffy, bloodshot, watery, and then the hives came.”
Her 14-year-old daughter was furious and stated she should go home. She agreed as she had left her inhaler and allergy medication back at their house.
Her own family members were worried about her, but all of her in-laws couldn’t have cared less about her clearly struggling.
But as she announced she was going to leave, they finally gave her some Benadryl, which she accepted. She was already having a hard time breathing, and dinner was quickly served.
What made the evening even more of a nightmare for her was that her in-laws put her chair right beside the kitty litter box.
“Yes, their kitty litter was right by the table that we were eating at. Not only is that gross but seriously?! I couldn’t sit anywhere else,” she said.
“They then asked if I would like wine to drink. I reminded them I just took a Benadryl and wasn’t feeling the best as is. I do not want to mix anything. Although I may be misinterpreting their response, but it appeared that they acted like I was being dramatic.”
“I sat and pushed food around on my plate as to not draw any concern, especially after we received a text prior to make it a good Thanksgiving as my MIL is not doing well with her struggle with cancer. My husband was checking in on me, and I told him I would be leaving to drive around for a while to get out of the house and away from the cats.”
She got up from the table and left to go for a drive for an entire hour. When she got back, not one person was concerned about her.
Shortly thereafter, they all went home. She was hurt, but she kept quiet so as not to create waves. Back at home, they all put their clothes right in the wash, and she hopped in the shower, hoping to clean off enough so that she wouldn’t get worse.
Unfortunately, when she woke up the following morning, her eyes were glued shut, she had hives on her hands, and her face was puffy. When the day was over, she finally got some relief.
Still, her in-laws didn’t check up on her or ask her husband if she was ok. They don’t care about her, which doesn’t feel good.
“I told my husband that it seemed very calculated to not tell me about the cats and then act like nothing is happening once I got reactions to them,” she continued.
“I told him for the sake of my mental and physical health, I will not be returning to their house. I know that Christmas will be there as it has been for the last 15 years. He didn’t really have a response and doesn’t think they did anything intentionally.”
“I disagree, and regardless, I do not want to go through this feeling again. I told him we don’t even have to tell them until he shows up with the kids and not me. This would avoid any drama leading up to the event. I even said we can lie and say I don’t feel well.”
Her husband said she should bring her inhaler and take her allergy meds, then go to Christmas with him. While she normally might say yes, she’s so upset that it seems her in-laws intentionally sabotaged her with the cats, and that’s why she wants to skip Christmas with them.
Not only that, but it was so rude that not a single person in her husband’s family cared about how she was having an allergic reaction.
She’s left wondering if it’s wrong of her to want to stay home and not spend Christmas with her in-laws.
What do you think?
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