Democracy Dies in Darkness

Carolyn Hax: In-laws stalk the live stream to check couple’s attendance at church

Out-of-town in-laws look for this couple on their church’s live stream and make snarky comments when they don’t attend.

Advice by
Columnist
May 10, 2024 at 12:00 a.m. EDT
(Nick Galifianakis/Illustration by Nick Galifianakis for The Washington Post)
3 min

Hi, Carolyn: Our church started streaming its services online during the pandemic, and this continues today. My in-laws often watch the services together. They live far away, belong to their own church and attend services there regularly.

The problem is, they make snarky comments if they don’t see us on the video. “I see SOMEBODY slept in today,” or, “Ahh, you missed church … again.” They have even set an alarm on their phone to go off when our services start. It’s super annoying and downright stalkerish to me.