Your wedding is one of the most important days in your life. And it’s fairly normal for the happy couple to expect at least a bit of support from their family. With an event so significant, there are lots of moving parts. What you probably don’t expect is one of your parents to start sabotaging, well, everything.
One bride opened up online about how her narcissistic, entitled, and downright unpleasant mother-in-law ruined her entire wedding day. Things got so bad, she considered never forgiving her, but asked the AITA community for its perspective about the entire drama. Scroll down for the full story and the internet’s advice.
The wedding day is supposed to be a special event, celebrating the happy couple
Image credits: Jeongim Kwon (not the actual photo)
But one narcissistic MIL decided to make the whole thing about herself
Image credits: lil artsy (not the actual photo)
Image credits: tracy truhan (not the actual photo)
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The bride’s MIL demonstrates clear signs of narcissism
Image credits: Maël Renault (not the actual photo)
Narcissists have been plaguing human interaction since time immemorial, and the author’s story is just one of millions. Some folks sincerely believe that they, and by extension, their feelings are simply more important than anything else in the universe. In its most extreme cases, this can manifest itself as destructive narcissism, where the person tears apart social bonds and relationships.
From the perspective of the narcissist, they are not doing anything wrong. Rather, an incident, say, the bride’s wedding, causes them to feel bad. Since they are the center of the universe, this feeling of “bad” has to now be felt by everyone. As one comment noted, a narcissist loves other people’s events. This is because upsetting an event is a great way to rectify a cosmic injustice, i.e. people paying attention to someone else.
At no point during her “rampage” did the bride’s MIL stop or apologize, this action had to wait until later. Had she apologized during the wedding, it would have taken attention away from her, which would have been the worst outcome.
An overvalued sense of self isn’t always bad for you
Image credits: Alvaro O’Donnell (not the actual photo)
Psychologists believe that a small amount of narcissism isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It helps maintain self-esteem, which is overall very important. Seeing yourself as important, smart, and overall good is perhaps better than the crushing self-hatred many people deal with. But like most parts of life, there can be too much of a good thing.
Unfortunately, parents are pretty common candidates when it comes to narcissism. The sort of emotional abuse committed by OP’s MIL is a common, yet horrible norm for many people around the world. OP’s spouse’s crying is likely as much a result of the MIL’s actions at the wedding, as her normal behavior towards him.
This is particularly horrible, as the lasting effects of having narcissistic parents are severe. Poor self-esteem, a higher risk of depression, and an overall unhappy childhood are just some of the risks. Even worse, in most cases, the child of a narcissist doesn’t even realize their parent is mentally ill. Instead, they often blame themselves for the parent throwing a fit or worse.
Narcissists often damage their children in the long run
Image credits: Francisco Moreno (not the actual photo)
Because a narcissist tends to be sparing with any praise (or real attention,) their offspring often develop unhealthy relationships later in life. They often have an increased need for affirmation and attention in all their relationships, to a degree that is emotionally unhealthy. We do not know how the bride’s spouse copes or doesn’t cope with this upbringing, so we can only wish him the best.
Fortunately, given time and distance, a child of a narcissist can recover and properly see the toxicity of the relationship. However, the author’s MIL does seem to still be very much present. She was even involved in the organizing of the wedding, where she repeatedly failed to do her part. Hopefully, this event and the bride’s very fair reaction can be a sort of wake-up call, that, at best, stronger boundaries are needed.
The author shared some more details with interested readers
Most thought they were not at all expected to forgive the MIL
But some thought it was too little, too late
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