A woman has expressed concerns that she went too far after she told her sister-in-law that her dog is not equal to their baby.
Her comments have left people divided after she shared the tale on Reddit.
“Two years ago, my husband and I became pregnant,” she began.
“This was huge for us, as we both have always been really passionate about becoming parents.
“Before we could tell anyone, my husband’s brother and his wife told the family that they had been trying to conceive, but found out they couldn’t… they were devastated, and we were heartbroken for them.”
“My husband and I decided to hold off on announcing,” she continued. “We waited 3 months, but then I was starting to show, and we had no choice. A week after we announced, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law adopted a dog named Bella. Immediately she was all they talked about, and they refused to go anywhere without her.”
She continued to explain that the dog “ruined our relationship with them” as a result of their infatuation with the animal.
“My husband and his brother don’t hang out anymore, because my brother-in-law is so obsessed with Bella that he’s hard to talk to and my sister-in-law has quit her job, so she doesn’t have to spend any time away from the dog.
“We even stopped our weekly family dinners because Bella barks non-stop, pulls food off the table [and] bites. She’s a nightmare. Plus, my husband is allergic, and can’t be around her for longer than an hour anyway.
“They called Bella ‘the first grandchild’ or the ‘first girl’ – there hasn’t been a girl born into the family in 5 years – which bothers me because my daughter is those things, not the dog. They think my daughter and their dog should be treated equally and get upset when they are not.
“Even when I gave birth and people were reaching out to check on me and my daughter, they sulked and made a long post on Facebook saying they were hurt no one had done the same for them when they adopted their dog.”
She continued: “As my husband and I were just about to leave his parents’ house, I heard my brother-in-law say that if his dog wasn’t invited, then my daughter shouldn’t be either: ‘Why should they get to bring her if we can’t bring Bella?’ They say things like that all the time, but this time I finally snapped and said, ‘Because Bella is a dog and my daughter is an actual human being. My child and your pet are not the same,’” she recalled.
“Later my brother-in-law called my husband to say that I had really hurt them and made my sister-in-law cry. My husband says that I shouldn’t have said anything and should take it back. I know their dog is like their child, and I don’t mean to be cruel and insensitive, but I am also so tired of hearing them compare my daughter to a dog.”
