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Even in our increasingly chaotic world, a few certainties still remain. The sun will always rise. Time will always move forward. And some mothers-in-law will never, ever get the hint that the world does not revolve around them. A new mom found herself staring down the barrel of this issue when her baby was born. Once her mother-in-law found out the baby’s name, the joyous event quickly took a dramatic turn.

A woman’s mother-in-law was furious after finding out her granddaughter wasn’t named after her.

Nothing seems to get a mother-in-law riled up quite like a baby name. The internet is chock full of stories from moms and dads having to go to battle with one of their mothers over her opinions of their grandchild’s moniker, which is pretty odd when you consider it’s none of her dang business!

For this mom, the situation was even more fraught. Turning to Reddit to vent, she explained that not only did her mother-in-law hate the meaningful name she chose, but she had just assumed the baby would be named after her. She just assumed it! This lady must be Main Character Syndrome’s final boss.

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The grandma tried to get them to change the baby’s name because she said it was for a boy.

Now we get to the next layer of this ridiculous story. The mom named her daughter Parker, which is her husband’s middle name and a name she always liked for a little girl. Obviously, Parker is a gender-neutral name. There’s actors Parker Stevenson, a man, and Parker Posey, a woman, for just two examples. Anyone can be named Parker!

Anyone except those in this family, that is. “When we told my father and mother in law, [her] face dropped and she looked like she was about to cry,” the mom wrote in her post. “My husband asked what’s wrong, she said she can’t believe we gave her granddaughter a boy’s name and that she thought we would name our daughter after her.”

Anna Shvets | Pexels

There are two problems here, of course: It’s not just a boy’s name, and at no point was it ever discussed that the baby would be named after her! “I told her it’s bold of her to assume we would name our daughter after her,” the mom wrote, which is an understatement.

But her mother-in-law insisted that she was “wasting” their “only daughter” on a boy’s name, which is downright weird, “then she said she just can’t get over that her son wouldn’t name his daughter after his mom.” Well, I suggest you find a way, lady!

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The mother-in-law accused her of ‘brainwashing’ her son, and the rest of the family is backing her up.

When the mom’s husband spoke up to say that he loves the name they gave their baby and they weren’t going to change it, the mother-in-law went immediately full-bore in the most “boy mom” direction possible. “[She] started crying saying I’m evil and brainwashed her son,” the mom wrote. Oh brother.

And of course, because this is pretty much how it always goes in families like this, their phones immediately started ringing with other family members, like her husband’s brother, calling to say that they were in the wrong and should have named their baby after the mother-in-law to appease her. He blamed the mom and dad for “making the rest of the family go through this.”

This is vintage toxic family dynamics, and the brother-in-law’s weak-willed fear of his mom is likely part of why she acts the way she does. To suggest that someone owes it to a matriarch, or anyone, to change the name of their baby to keep her happy is absurd.

It is also a betrayal. Part of the trust inherent to solid relationships, whether it’s a marriage, friendship, co-worker, or otherwise, is to know that the person you’re in a relationship with will have your back when someone is mistreating you. This kind of cowardice is a violation of that pact, even if it’s unspoken.

Nobody owes it to anyone to appease someone’s toxic behavior. As one Redditor put it, “brother-in-law should have a daughter of his own then and name after mother-in-law if he is so concerned about her feelings.” Exactly. Here’s hoping this mom and her husband stand their ground, because if there’s this much drama over a name, imagine how much drama there will be over the baby itself.

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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.