After cleaning your house from top to bottom, the last thing you want is for a loved one to tell you that your home looks dirty. I mean come on, why did you spend all that time wiping down the tub? But one woman believes her mother-in-law’s critical comments are really meant to hide the ahem trips to the bathroom she’s been taking at her house and now she doesn’t know how to get her to stop talking smack about her bathroom.
The original poster finally came clean in a Reddit post after her MIL accused her of keeping a dirty house one too many times.
As the OP explained, “My MIL keeps telling me my bathroom is dirty and that she keeps cleaning it,” she wrote in a post on r/JUSTNOMIL.
It wouldn’t be so bad, but her MIL is over all the time and the OP knows she always leaves her bathroom spotless when she cleans.
“My bathroom is NOT dirty, none of my house is,” she wrote. “Especially the bathroom..I have a newborn and clean it twice a week. I hate germs and piss and poop in general.”
So what’s the deal? Well there might be an ulterior motive for these crazy comments.
“Here’s the thing…She says it’s dirty EVERY TIME she takes a s—,” the OP explained. “I don’t know if this is her way of trying to hide she just took a dump in my house (which is never an issue…anyone can take a poop at my house. We all poop).”
Her MIL often will drop the kids off at the pool and then tell the OP that “it was so dirty and stunk bad so she had to clean.”
When the OP goes into the bathroom to investigate, it usually smells like fabric refresher and poo.
“Yes, she puts fabric refresher in the toilet and scrubs it I guess in hopes the smell goes away,” the OP wrote. “I tell her hm that’s funny cause I just cleaned it earlier..she’s like nooo it was so dirty and puts this stank face on.”
It’s gotten so annoying that the OP is tempted to call her MIL out.
“I really just want to say ‘LADY, it’s fine you took a s–. And I know you took a s—. Detergent in the toilet is not masking the smell AT ALL,’” she explained.
“I’m so annoyed. She’s crazy,” she added.
Some people thought the OP needed to call her MIL out.
“Before she goes in to use your bathroom, go in front of her and say ‘let me clean it first’ shut and lock the door, make swirly noises in the toilet, Lysol wipe the sink,” suggested one person. “Take your time. Then come out and say ‘ok, now it’s clean enough for you to take your stinky dump and blame me for my bathroom being dirty again.'”
“She’s literally acting as though her s– doesn’t stink and blaming said stink on your housekeeping,” another commenter noted. “Call her out. She’s so delusional that it may take > once. If circumstances permit do it in front of as many other persons as possible. Bet a case of air freshener that’ll stop her the quickest.”
“Just tell her!” another commenter advised. “‘You don’t have to make a song and dance about it, I know you are using the toilet, I know you are taking a s—, just flush, spray some air freshener into the bowl and close the lid. It does an excellent job of keeping down smells. I don’t want any more complaints about it stinking, after you have s— in there, got it?'”
Other people sort of felt bad for the OP's MIL.
“This lady is seeming to carry some serious shame over this,” one commenter pointed out. “It’s kind of sad that somebody probably made her feel bad about it at one point. It’s odd that she feels this way and doesn’t just make other arrangements to do her business before coming. Very odd song and dance.”
“If she’s not a jerk normally I’d buy some poo pouri and get some matches and spray freshener,” another commenter advised. “She’s clearly embarrassed and this isn’t the way to handle it, but if you deem her worthy this might be a way to solve the issue for you both.”
Another commenter was concerned that something serious was going on: “If someone is leaving bad smells consistently over time and is of an older age, it could be a serious problem. My stepmother had bowel cancer and we would joke about the smell, but that was the cancer and no-one even knew until it was too late.”
Other commenters recommended some ways her MIL could kill the stinky smell.
“I would probably be stressed about how she’s trying to clean it and would get one of those Clorox wands that has flushable wipes specifically for cleaning any poop streaks in the toilet and getting some Poo-Pourri, it’s so annoying that she’s pretending it’s dirty, I would be like omg Tysm for cleaning up your poop streaks,” one commenter joked.
“Am I the only one who knows the trick of lighting a match? Helps get rid of the smell and the stick gets flushed along with everything else,” wrote another commenter.
“Poo-pouri is such a great product for exactly this!” another commenter suggested.
Later in the thread, the OP explained that her husband recently spilled some information on his mom’s potty past.
“My Significant Other told me she’s been doing this since he was younger living with her,” she wrote. “I think she’s extremely embarrassed of taking a s—. I don’t get it.”
In this case, the OP might earn points by making the situation as comfortable for her MIL as possible. While it might be satisfying to call her on her … stuff, it is certainly kinder to try and make it so her MIL won’t be embarrassed.
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