Anonymous wrote:No we aren’t Jewish. (MIL is southern Baptist)
We have 2 kids under 5.

Southern Baptists also don't tend to do boundaries. That
tickling behavior is really weird OP. I could see her doing it once when seeing him, but multiple time a day? Very odd.

Anonymous wrote:He's going to have to tell her loudly and forcefully, and then if she does it again he's going to have to get angry and leave the room or leave the house. If she wants to discuss it, he can baldly ask her "Why do you insist on doing something to my body that I hate?"

He needs to do this ^.

I don’t think your husband hates it. I think he told you that to avoid an argument with you.

It’s not tickling that’s the problem. It’s that she is refusing to accept his boundaries.

Your husband needs to deal with this.

Maybe the only way to stop it is to have DH immediately say to her 'I told you I can't stand this, we have to leave right now'. If you leave every single time she does it, maybe she will learn to stop?

My concern would be for the kids seeing this. Overruling his clear lack of consent is not a good thing to be modeling for them. “If a family member touches you in ways that make you upset, just grin and bear it so that you don’t hurt their feelings.” Yeah. Not okay.

Anonymous wrote:Almost as creepy as that other post with the dad sharing the bed with a 12 year old daughter.

He shared a bed with his son. Daughter had her own bed in the shared hotel room.

He's going to have to tell her loudly and forcefully, and then if she does it again he's going to have to get angry and leave the room or leave the house. If she wants to discuss it, he can baldly ask her "Why do you insist on doing something to my body that I hate?"

Op, this isn’t your issue at all. It is between your husband and his mother. It isn’t your “boundary” or your place to interject yourself in the situation. It is his body, his mother and his choice to make her stop or not.

People see tickling as harmless, and it’s not. I hate being tickled and had to learn to be very forceful about the fact that I don’t like it (I’m a woman). Because he’s a man, I imagine she’ll be surprised that he’d take it so seriously, but I think he’s going to have to be forceful and get angry and maybe even impose a consequence for her to “get it”. If nothing else, see it as setting an example for your children about consent, touch, and boundaries.

Is she mentally ill?

You married a man whose mother tickles him a dozen times per visit?

Anonymous wrote:Almost as creepy as that other post with the dad sharing the bed with a 12 year old daughter.

No. This is worse.

Anonymous wrote:This is his problem, not hers. He is letting her do it. He is being inappropriate if he can’t set a boundary.

Also, this is the husband's problem, not OP's. It is entirely within his power to control this. Frankly any adult man who cannot get his mother to stop doing something that annoys him is really too caught up in the apron strings.

Almost as creepy as that other post with the dad sharing the bed with a 12 year old daughter.