Mother-In-Law Desperately Tries To Save Her Son's Marriage After He Cheats On His Wife, Fails

According to a common saying, marriage is a union not just between two people but between their entire families. However, some take this idea even further. Reddit user Beneficial_Bison4677 recently discovered that her mother-in-law believes she has the right to decide when—and if—her son's marriage should end. The woman tracked her down and publicly confronted her, insisting it would be a mistake to divorce him over his recent affair and that she should forgive him because their children need to grow up in a "complete" household.

Talal Alsaleem, who has helped hundreds of couples work through their infidelity in his almost two-decade-long career as a clinical psychologist and licensed marriage and family counselor, believes that in situations like this, partners need to turn toward each other. That doesn't automatically mean forgiving, he says, it's just facing the problem head-on.

Not everyone can or should forgive infidelity, and it's OK to end a relationship to save yourself from unnecessary pain and suffering.

However, in Alsaleem's experience, couples can and do recover from romantic affairs if they commit to healing. "If people choose to rebuild their relationship for the right reason, they're going to end up with a better, healthier relationship than ever before," he explains.

Couples should take the time to understand the root cause of the transgression. It will help them leave the trauma behind and avoid ending up in the same situation again, whether in the current relationship or future ones.

Rebuilding trust requires a lot, sometimes even proactive transparency on the part of the unfaithful: sharing their location or phone and laptop passwords to prove there’s nothing to hide.

"Breaking someone's heart – that's not a small thing, regardless of how far we went into the infidelity," says Alsaleem. Ultimately, it's a personal choice, and we shouldn't judge someone over the route they decide to take.

According to the legal experts at Rodier Family Law, a Maryland-based firm that specializes in these types of cases, many American states consider adultery as a valid ground for divorce, meaning that the spouse who was cheated on can use it as a fault-based ground for filing for divorce.

This, in turn, can impact the ruling. For example, if the cheating spouse spent assets on the affair, their partner may be entitled to a larger share of wealth.

Additionally, if the cheating spouse engaged in financial infidelities, such as hiding assets or running up debts, the wronged spouse may be entitled to an even larger share of the property to compensate for the harm.

Infidelity can also impact alimony. If the cheating spouse was the primary breadwinner, they might be required to send the other spouse bigger payments for the loss of income and stability caused by the affair.

It may also impact child custody. If the cheating spouse engaged in behavior that could be harmful to the kids, such as exposing them to the affair or neglecting their parenting responsibilities, their partner may be awarded more custody time.

So the Redditor is kind of right to point out that her mother-in-law should be grateful to her for not dragging her son into a much more complicated legal battle.