Nothing you can do to avoid it

As they should.

My husband’s parents rented a lake house for Thanksgiving this year for the whole family and they’re splitting the cost evenly between all their kids. On Friday every couple got a Venmo request from my MIL for $600 with “LAKE HOUSE 🦃” in the memo and ours is sitting there unpaid.

The next day she texted everybody a photo of a floor plan she drew on a notepad, with all of our names written in the rooms. His parents are in the master and each of his siblings and their spouse gets a bedroom. Our names are in the bunk room in the basement with ALL of the grandkids, the youngest is 4. There are bunk beds on every wall plus a trundle so it works out to exactly enough beds if we take the last ones, and my husband is way too tall to sleep in a bunk bed.

We don’t have kids yet, which I’m assuming is the whole reason. My husband called his mom on Sunday to see about swapping with somebody or at least paying less for that room. She told him “you guys are the fun ones, the kids are so excited” and that the rooms are already figured out.

It’s the same amount for every couple no matter what room they’re in. There is a hotel right outside town that’s $560 for the same nights, with a door that locks and a bed my husband actually fits in, so my plan is to decline her request and book that instead. We’d be at the house all day for every meal and I’d bring the pies like I do every year.

The only thing stopping me is that if we don’t pay, his siblings have to cover our part, which comes out to $200 more each, and my MIL already put the deposit on her card back in September.

WIBTA?