I (38M) live with my wife (37F) and my seven year old son. I work as an engineer and my wife is a senior supervisor at a law firm. I have always loved Legos since I was a kid, and sure, it’s kind of childish but it makes me happy so I’ve kept it as a consistent hobby throughout my adult life. In 2024 I spent months building the Millennium Falcon with my son. It’s me and my son’s pride and joy and I often show guests who come over. My wife doesn’t really get the hype but doesn’t mind either.
In early March my wife’s parents came over for a week to spend time with us. As I usually do with guests, I asked them if they would like to see my Lego collection.
They agreed, and I showed both her father and mother my Millennium Falcon. Her father was amazed at the time it took to build my sizable collection, but her mother said that it was a waste of time and that I should focus on being a real man and move up the corporate ladder.
I laughed it off because she’s pretty old and I figured she just held very old fashioned beliefs. We left the room and nobody really mentioned it for a few hours, but at dinner her mother said out of nowhere that I should give up on all this Lego “nonsense” and be a real man. We ignored this and moved on, but you could see in her expression that she was not happy.
Nobody said anything about it for the rest of their stay, and all seemed well the morning they left. They left at 3AM to catch a flight, and we waved them off. I went back to bed but the next morning awoke to find my Millennium Falcon smashed to pieces with a note from my wife’s mother calmly saying that this was for my own good so that I can be a real man and focus on what matters. It turns out she had quietly destroyed it in the night and left in the morning. Me and especially my son were very upset. I called her in the morning but she refused to apologize. I said that until she apologized they would not be coming back again. My wife is not happy with my decision on this matter and honestly I’m starting to wonder if I overreacted. Did I go overboard or am I in the right?
