Dear Prudence,
My mother-in-law is insanely cheap, but recently, she did something when she was out with my 1-year-old son and my 4-year-old daughter at the movies that is infuriating. We were having lunch at her place the other day when I thanked her for taking the kids to the movies so my husband and I could have some alone time. She then shared a secret with me for getting in without paying.
She crowed about how she had taken off one of my son’s shoes and gone up to one of the staff and said it had been lost in the theater of the movie they were going to see. The staff member let them in to look for it, assuming they would leave through one of the doors leading to the parking lot once it was found. She then had them stay for the movie. To me, this is stealing!
When I told my husband about it, he said I was overreacting—his parents used to do that all the time when he and his brother and sister were young! I don’t know which is worse: what my MIL did, or the fact that my husband finds it acceptable. Would it be reasonable for me to quash all future outings where my MIL has the kids solo?