Issues with in-laws are common – at least if mediocre stand-up routines are anything to go by.

But even if there’s frostiness, most of us try our best to get on with our partner’s parents, offering the olive branch in the hope of preserving family harmony.

That’s what this woman seemed to be doing during her two-year marriage, although her husband recently told her in no uncertain terms her efforts were wasted.

Posting to Reddit, the man described his mother as ‘cold’, ‘not rude or anything’ but ‘disinterested’ in his wife.

He explained: ‘The best way I can explain my mom is that she is tired. She had a really hard life, doesn’t have much affection left to give and she rarely gets close to anyone.

‘She’s a retired old lady that just want to sit on the porch not make small talk with people.’

Although he’d reiterated this to his wife, she apparently didn’t get the memo about her mother-in-law’s antisocial tendencies.

At a recent get-together at the mum’s home, the man has to stop his wife from taking potatoes and salad along, as the family matriarch, ‘doesn’t like it when people bring food, she works all day to make a spread and it’s like her thing.’

Things continued to escalate, as he said his wife was ‘bothering’ his mum, ‘asking her if she wants to go on a shopping trip’ while sat on the porch.

The post read: ‘When my mom asks for some quiet she still talks on. So when I was walking by she asked me to take my wife away from her.

‘This made my wife upset but I did it since I could see mom was getting close to the end of her rope.’

After the event, the woman told her husband she ‘just wants to be loved’ by her mother-in-law, to which he replied that she would ‘never love her’ and advised her ‘to just stop.’

‘What you are doing is actively making her dislike you,’ he added. ‘Leave the woman alone.’

This prompted the woman to call her husband a jerk and the couple haven’t spoken since, which is why he came to social media to seek perspectives on whether he was out of line.

Responses were mixed, with some arguing the mum was rude and others suggesting the wife accept the situation as it is.

‘It sucks for your wife but let people be,’ wrote one user. ‘Not everyone will be liked by everyone, and your wife should be old and mature enough to understand that.’

‘Wife should respect her boundaries and just accept that people are different and not everyone needs to be constantly entertained with babble,’ said another.

On the opposite side, one person commented: ‘Why even have a get together if you want to be left the hell alone? Your mom could at least show some basic respect to her especially when she is the host.

‘If I was in your wife’s position I wouldn’t feel very welcome.’

‘This is just needlessly mean and I’d be reconsidering the whole marriage if I was being spoken to that way by my partner or his family,’ said another, while a third added: ‘Your mother doesn’t have to like your wife but being old and having had a hard life doesn’t entitle her to be rude.’

Some also claimed the husband’s harsh outburst exacerbated issues, plus some blamed him for not having his wife’s back.

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