Man sparks fierce debate after clapping back at his 'emotionally immature' mother-in-law who criticized him for having a tub of Vaseline on his bedside table

A man has revealed how he got in a tiff with his mother-in-law after she snidely pointed out a vat of Vaseline on his bedside table - only for him to hit back with a snarky comment that caused a wave of tension to descend on their rapport.

Wondering if he should be the bigger person and apologize, the unnamed man took to Reddit's notorious Am I The A**hole forum with a post titled: 'AITA for telling my MIL why I have Vaseline next to my bed?'

He went on to describe that he feels his mother-in-law is 'insecure' and may further have some hard feelings about his wife - her daughter - Tara seemingly leaving her midwestern hometown as fast as she could.

'Tara also escaped from her little midwestern hometown and ran to the coast the absolute moment that she could, and I am pretty sure her mom took that personally. (her mom was born and raised in and around that small town),' the man explained.

Wondering if he should be the bigger person and apologize, the unnamed man took to Reddit's notorious Am I The A**hole forum with a post titled: 'AITA for telling my MIL why I have Vaseline next to my bed?' 

He further elaborated of his extended family: 'My mother-in-law is not a bad or evil person, she usually means very well, but she's kind of, I don't know how to put it, self-centered? 

'Like her first thought process is always "how do I feel about this new information?"'

Last year, he continued, the husband and wife duo had bought a 'starter home' to which his mother-in-law had recently 'invited herself over.'

'This is something that is extremely on brand for her, and we like to pick our battles in this family, so we just let her,' he added.

'Her mom (who again is not terrible, just has bad emotional regulation and boundaries) shows up and drops her stuff in the spare room and just immediately starts giving herself the tour,' he further described. 

As the mother-in-law began looking around the house, she went into the master bedroom shared by the man and his wife. 

'So she's wandering around and comes to our bedroom. I have a jumbo sized tub of generic Vaseline next to my bed because I use a nose CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure machine) and my lips get chapped so she picks it up and makes this really weird face and says, almost direct quote, "well I know what THIS is for!"'

The man was understandably shocked but quickly hit back.  

He went on to describe that he feels his mother-in-law is 'insecure' and may further have some hard feelings about his wife - her daughter - Tara seemingly leaving her midwestern hometown as fast as she could (stock image) 

'I respond, "oh that's for chapped lips, I don't j**k off with Vaseline," he described of his punchline-moment. 

'Apparently my timing was good because my wife laughed but my mother-in-law did not laugh at all,' he continued.

'Then for the next three days she kept asking me ARE YOU GONNA BE GROSS AGAIN? when I tried to make normal conversation.

'I said over and over that she was the one who made the joke and her response was always "yeah but that was a JOKE!" like what I said was totally serious?

'And I guess it was, I mean, I was telling the truth, but I was only bantering because she started it. I didn't even invite her into our bedroom.'

The man concluded that the woman in question had been bringing it up to Tara ever since, and he feels 'subtle pressure from her to just apologize.' 

However, he feels that he didn't do 'anything wrong.'

He questioned whether he was the problem in the situation on the discussion forum but vast majority of the thousands who responded agreed that the man is NTA - short for Not The A**hole 

He questioned whether he was the problem in the situation on the discussion forum but vast majority of the thousands who responded agreed that the man is NTA - short for Not The A**hole.

'NTA. She was the one who first insinuated it was for sex. You just said it out loud. She's got the dirty mind...' one top-voted responded replied.

'NTA, she tried to make you blush but then gets mad because you made her blush is what this basically boils down to. 

'The next time she says something about it I would just be like "omg how much do you think about this ONE comment??? The fact that it seems to be at the absolute forefront of your mind is making me almost as uncomfortable as the original joke. Can we just bury this entire incident?"' a second reasoned. 

'NTA, you didn't do anything wrong. Anyone with even a slight sense of humor would find that funny. And you're right, she's the one with her mind in the gutter in the first place!

'She goes to your house uninvited, goes into your room without permission thus invading your space, makes a sexual innuendo of something as innocuous as Vaseline by your bed, which you then smoothly brush off and make (admittedly) a funny joke about, and now YOU'RE the one who owes an apology?' a third chimed in.

'NTA. Not only does the mother-in-law not deserve and apology, she ought to be offering one for going into your bedroom and making jokes about your sex life. If she doesn't, let her be offended and let her pound sound,' added a fourth.

And, as a fifth put it: 'NTA. She needs to get a sense of humor, or quit being nosy!'