This is so stupid but I’m genuinely at my limit here.
I’m 34F, married to Theo 36M for about 5 years. His sister Bridget (32F) lives maybe 40 minutes away and visits us like once or twice a month. Which was fine. WAS.
Bridget has this thing where she “helps” by rearranging stuff in our house. Without asking. Ever.
I don’t even know when it started honestly. Maybe a year ago? Could be longer. At first it was small stuff. She’d move the fruit bowl to a different spot on the counter. Rearrange the throw pillows. I thought I was going crazy at first because I’d come home and things would just be… different.
Then it escalated.
Last month she moved ALL of our living room furniture while Theo and I were at work. Like she had a spare key for emergencies and just let herself in. Came home to my couch against a completely different wall. She said the “flow” was better now.
I told Theo I was upset and he said I should be grateful because “Bridget has a really good eye for design” and “she’s just trying to help.”
This weekend was the final straw. She was over for dinner and I went to grab something from the bedroom. Came back and she’d moved my grandmother’s china cabinet. The one with my grandmother’s actual china in it. She was in the process of “reorganizing” the plates inside.
I lost it. Told her she needs to stop touching our stuff and that she’s not welcome here without me or Theo present anymore.
She cried. Theo pulled me aside and said I humiliated her and she was “just being thoughtful.” Now his whole family thinks I’m ungrateful and controlling.
But like. It’s MY house?? My grandmother’s china?? I didn’t ask for any of this??
I know it sounds petty when I write it out. She’s not stealing anything. She’s not breaking anything. But I feel like I can’t relax in my own home because I never know what’s going to be different when I walk into a room.
Theo thinks I should apologize. I think he should’ve backed me up literally any of the other times I mentioned this was bothering me.
AITA for setting this boundary?
