AITA for setting a glitter trap to catch my mother in law trying to snoop?

A Redditor is frustrated by her mother-in-law’s constant attempts to snoop around her house, particularly trying to get into private rooms like the bedroom and office. After her MIL was caught rifling through personal items, the Redditor installed locks on the doors.

However, her MIL continued trying to access those rooms, leading the Redditor to set a glitter trap on the doorknobs and in the office. When her MIL got covered in glitter, she screamed at the Redditor, who now wonders if her actions went too far. Read the original story below…

‘ AITA for setting a glitter trap to catch my mother in law trying to snoop?’

For some weird reason my MIL really wants to go into our bedroom whenever she comes over. On one occasion I followed her as she went upstairs (i was going to get something for my child as the bedrooms are upstairs) and she walked past the bathroom on the main floor and up the stairs behind it.

She didn’t hear me and I caught her walking straight into my room and rifling through bills on my dresser. She denied snooping (even though I’d just watched her do it) and said she was just going to use our bathroom because she couldn’t find the other ones.

She walked right past the one on the main floor and another one in the upstairs hallway to go into our bedroom. Since that happened, I installed an exterior doorknob that requires a key on our bedroom door and one on the door to our office/spare bedroom.

However, she’s still always “forgetting” where the bathroom is and trying the bedroom and office door. This really ticks me off. My husband says that I just get annoyed at this because everything she does drives me crazy and since we’ve put locks on the rooms we don’t want her in, there isn’t really a problem anymore.

Well over the holidays we had my in laws over for dinner and before they came I was searching for the bedroom keys. We hadn’t used them in a while since we only lock the doors when MIL comes over. My husband told me we didn’t need to lock the doors since she wouldn’t try to get into the rooms and I insisted that she would because she loves to snoop.

We went back and forth and decided to cover the doorknobs in super fine glitter to see if she tried them. I did this once before when husband didn’t believe me about the snooping to prove she’d been in the rooms. Last time she ignored the glitter and we didn’t say anything about it but then my husband couldn’t deny that she’d tried to snoop.

So this time I covered the knobs in glitter and for the office went a touch further and rigged a little folder of glitter over the door to the office before the in laws came over. I left it one side unlocked (French doors) and it was set so if you walked in the room you would get covered in glitter.

Husband goes out of his way to show his mom the main floor bathroom when they got here and specifically asks his parents and sister not to go upstairs. There’s a baby gate so the kids can’t get upstairs either. Well guess who had to go to the bathroom and got covered in glitter and had it all over their hands and hair?

She completely lost it and started screaming at me so I yelled back and now my husband is saying I went too far and I’m the a**hole. MIL also says I’m the a**hole but SIL says I didn’t do anything wrong and MIL deserved it for snooping. FIL is Switzerland. Apparently her car is ruined now too because it’s covered in glitter that she cant get cleaned up. So AITA?

Here’s the feedback from the Reddit community:

Hefty_Candidate_4902 −  NTA. Your MIL is an issue but the fact that your husband refuses to set and enforce boundaries with her is actually the larger issue here.

HobbitQueen8 −  Absolutely NTA – that is HYSTERICAL!!!!!!! You are my g**damn hero 😂😂😂😂

antonio-bolonio −  NTA. I had a good laugh at this. I feel like you did a good job leading up to this and were incredibly patient with a boundary stomping MIL. My petty ass doesn’t see this as your fault. I mean sure we know you set a trap for her. But she had been explicitly told time and time again to not go into those rooms.

I mean, how were you really supposed to know she would ruin your nice and neat glitter envelope that you worked so hard on and accidentally left on the door of the office.

The way I see it she owes you an apology because her recklessness got glitter all over your floors, and you now have to refill your special glitter envelope. /s in case I’m not clear. (Edit spelling mistakes, grammar, I wrote this at like 2AM)

IndieJones29 −  NTA. Why is your husband okay with his mother walking all over your boundaries. Also, the getting caught with glitter on her hands is HILARIOUS, but it’s going to be hard to clean up, for you.

waterballoontits −  My 7 year old overheard me reading this to my sister. She accidentally swore in front of me (and sobbed afterward) saying “NO WAY! SHE IS NOT THE A**HOLE!!” I didn’t even get mad about the accidental swearing, you are NTA.

Hakiki999 −  “If you didn’t want any glitter on you why did you go into my glitter room?”. “That’s your office!?”. “No, it’s my glitter room.”. NTA.

DeffSkull −  NTA- But you missed out on the perfect opportunity to spread Disinformation. Make up fun documents to leave “hidden” on your desk about how your helping the UN with a “crisis” or leave out fake letters from heads of state or whoever her favorite famous person is. If she’s gonna snoop have fun with it.

Murky_Advice −  NTA – but you have a husband problem as well as a MIL problem. Your husband wants to rug sweep his mom’s snooping, and I’d bet actual money he hid or threw away the keys to the locks just so you couldn’t lock his precious mommy out of your rooms.

[Reddit User] −  NTA. Pretty self evident who’s the AH here, and it ain’t you. Your ML sounds nuts, and your hubby needs his head examined. Bravo on the sting op though. Well played.

MonkeeKnucklez −  NTA – First off, I really hope you have hardwood floors. Second, how the hell is he actually defending her now that she had been caught red-handed multiple times? That’s on him.

Did the Redditor go too far with the glitter trap, or was this an understandable reaction to constant boundary violations? How would you have handled the situation with an overstepping family member? Share your thoughts below.