A smashed birthday cake on the ground

Managing relationships with your partner’s parents can be difficult at the best of times, even if you’re fans of one another.

But when you feel, or, worse, are explicitly told, that they don’t like you, those challenges can feel insurmountable.

Such was the case with Redditor u/Cute_Environment_515, who asked the members of r/AITAH (Am I The Asshole Here): “AITAH for refusing to pay for my boyfriend’s mom’s birthday dinner after she called me his ‘temporary girlfriend’?”

So, we thought we’d speak to experts about how to handle difficult relations with your partner’s family, and when (if ever) their behaviour should make you consider breaking up.

The poster bailed on the family dinner

The original poster (OP), who has been with her boyfriend for a year and a half, says she has an otherwise lovely relationship with her partner and has met his family several........

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