Christmas is coming soon. Santa is already preparing his sleigh, oiling the runners, and his reindeer are hard at work training for the long run. Millions of people around the world are also getting ready: cleaning their homes, bringing in Christmas trees, taking beautiful decorations out of dusty boxes...
Ah, and now imagine taking out a box too - and discovering that of your three favorite Christmas decorations since childhood, only one remains! But then you find the remaining two on your mother-in-law's Xmas tree! That's exactly what happened to the user ExhaustedPigeon37, the narrator of the story we want to tell you today.
More info: Mumsnet
They say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year - but not when you suddenly lose two of three of your most sentimental Christmas decorations!
Image credits: wirestock / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author of the post has three favorite decorations from her childhood - and recently she found out there's only one of them left
Image credits: ExhaustedPigeon37
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The woman failed to find two of them at home, but after going over to her MIL's home, she found the same two decorations hanging off her tree
Image credits: ExhaustedPigeon37
Image credits: Wavebreak Media / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The husband vowed he'd never given these decorations to his mom, but the author wasn't sure these ones were actually hers
Image credits: ExhaustedPigeon37
So now the lady is in two minds about whether to demand her MIL give her these decorations back or calm down and give up
So, the Original Poster (OP) recently started unpacking her Christmas decorations for her home, preparing to decorate everything for the approaching holidays. Besides the other decorations, the woman had three small items left over from her childhood: three beautiful old decorations saying "Joy," "Noel," and "Ho Ho Ho" with a Santa head on top.
Nothing special, just three ordinary things left over from the author's childhood, but they definitely held sentimental value for her. And how upset she was when this time she only found one of them - the "Joy" one! Our heroine rummaged through the entire house, but couldn't find the other two. Well, she hung the one decoration and made peace with it.
However, when she and her husband visited her MIL, the author suddenly noticed two decorations on her tree - most likely the same ones she couldn't find at home! The author didn't want to stir up any drama right away, but consulted with her spouse first. He said he didn't remember giving the decorations to his mom, but agreed that the ones hanging on the tree looked exactly like the lost ones.
And now the original poster is contemplating the best course of action in this situation: should she demand the mother-in-law return the "stolen" decorations, or should she relent and give in, simply to avoid further drama with her in-laws? So the lady just decided to take it online in order to ask netizens' advice.
Image credits: ExhaustedPigeon37 / Mumsnet
"Actually, absolutely anything is possible, and I wouldn't rule out the idea that the mother-in-law really could’ve taken the decorations she liked behind her son and his wife's back," says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, with whom Bored Panda contacted for a comment here. "Or she could’ve demanded that the son give her the decorations himself - and he agreed to avoid any unnecessary stress."
On the other hand, according to the expert, it's also not a great idea to start a conflict with the mother-in-law without being 100% sure that these are the very same items. It could simply turn out that she's wrong, and the conflict will inevitably escalate and ruin their relationship.
"In any case, I believe it's worth remaining diplomatic and, if possible, trying to find out whether the mother-in-law really stole the decorations. If so, then she should calmly, without making unnecessary accusations, take back what's hers - or perhaps try to outsmart her by taking hers through cunning," Irina sums up.
People in the comments also urged the author not to spark a drama right off the bat, but to try to find out from her MIL where she got these decorations. Perhaps she'll let it slip or there will be some inconsistencies in her words. Well, some folks said that she should simply steal the decorations back. "Just nick them back ASAP," someone wrote. So what do you, our dear readers, think here?
Most commenters urged the woman to make sure these decorations are hers first, and only then to escalate the drama
