'I Told Infertile Sister-In-Law Her Beloved Dog Is Not Equal To My Baby - I Made Her Cry'

However, her patience wore thin after they adopted a dog and started treating it like it was on the same level as her daughter.

The same woman is now pondering if she went too far by making it clear to her husband's family, who couldn't have children, that their pet isn't on the same footing as a human child.

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The situation escalated when the couple, unable to have kids, poured all their love into their new dog.

"Two years ago, my husband and I became pregnant. 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," she shared on Reddit.

"My husband and I decided to hold off on announcing. We waited three 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."

This newfound obsession with Bella brought some tension into the family dynamic and "wrecked our relationship with them."

The woman added: "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 five 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."

The situation reached a boiling point at a family wedding where the in-laws were specifically asked not to bring Bella.

"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."

Reacting to her post, a user mentioned:

"Infertility is really hard to cope with, we got dogs too, for us they were always pets, for some they are child substitutes, others go even further like your in-laws,"

While another pointed out:

"While it's important to be empathetic towards your in-laws' pain, it's also reasonable to expect that your child should be treated differently than a dog."