Mother-in-law is tracking her adult son through an app on his phone

Dear Abby: I have been married to my husband for five years. We live in the same town as my in-laws, and for the most part, we get along great. However, my mother-in-law does something that makes me uneasy. She uses an app to track my husband. She pressured him into installing it right before our wedding and has tracked him ever since.

She’ll often text or call him to ask why he’s going to the store, or what he was doing when he was late to work, etc. Once he tried to remove the app, but she quickly noticed and confronted him. Abby, I have never seen her so angry! My husband caved and reinstalled it. Since then, he says it doesn’t really bother him that she tracks him. Am I wrong to be upset about this? What can I do to get my mother-in-law to give us some privacy?

— Uneasy In Kansas

Dear Uneasy: You’re not wrong. Your husband should revoke the location permission on the app on his phone or delete it altogether.

What his mother is doing is sick. It’s a huge invasion of your and your husband’s privacy.

He is so used to caving in to his mother that he doesn’t have the strength to assert himself.

I do not think you should take your motherin-law on by yourself. Enlist the help of a licensed marriage and family therapist for suggestions about how to create some separation.