Emily Whitaker sat in her rocking chair, knitting in hand. Nearby, on the old sofa, her grandson slept peacefully. She gazed at him with tenderness and quiet contentment. “There he is, growing up strong, and all because of my efforts,” she thought to herself.
Emily had always taken pride in her thriftiness. When she and her husband first started their life together, they had to count every penny. But those years taught her to find joy in simplicity and appreciate what they had. She knew how to make a hearty meal from scraps, mend old clothes to last another decade, and raise children to be healthy and happy without unnecessary extravagance.
Now that her daughter Lucy had married William, Emily noticed he’d forgotten the value of frugality. William earned a decent wage, but in Emily’s eyes, he wasted it thoughtlessly—new toys, expensive nappies, flashy clothes. It all seemed excessive to her. “In my day, women gave birth in fields!” she’d often mutter, recalling times when they made do with next to nothing.
She glanced at her grandson, dressed in a sturdy jumper handed down by a neighbor. “Why spend on new things when the old ones do just fine?” Emily wondered. She could see Lucy trying to follow her example, but it clearly annoyed William. He was always buying something new, never grasping that it wasn’t about how much you had but how wisely you used it.
Emily sighed and resumed her knitting. “Young people today,” she mused. “Always wanting the latest, the fanciest, the most expensive. But back in my day, we knew how to be happy with little.” She remembered raising Lucy, teaching her the value of hard work and saving.
William sat in his study, staring out the window as the sky darkened outside. Work was usually routine, but today his mind refused to focus on reports and figures. Instead, it circled back to the same frustration at home. His wife Lucy and her mother, Emily, had turned their lives into a miser’s nightmare.
They’d once lived modestly—almost poorly. Saving had been second nature, understandable when every pound counted just to cover food and bills. But things changed when William landed a better job. Now, he earned enough to live comfortably without worrying over every pence. Yet Lucy and Emily still acted as though they were penniless.
Every time William tried to do something nice for the family, he faced resistance. If he bought Lucy a dress, she’d hunt for cheaper alternatives. If he upgraded his phone, she’d insist the old one worked fine. And all the while, Emily would lecture him about how people “managed just fine without all this nonsense.”
The real test came with the baby. Surely now was the time to celebrate and care for their child properly. But no. Lucy refused to buy decent nappies, preferring old cloths that “had stood the test of time.” She pinched pennies on everything, from food to the baby’s clothes.
William tried explaining they had enough now to provide comfort and safety. His arguments crashed against a wall of stubbornness. Lucy wouldn’t budge, and Emily only fueled the fire with tales of the “good old days.”
One evening, after another argument, William decided to act. He gathered the family at the table and tried to reason with them calmly. He explained money was a tool to improve their lives, not an end in itself. He spoke about caring for their child, how frugality should be sensible, not extreme.
But his words fell on deaf ears. Lucy and Emily wouldn’t relent. “We managed fine before,” they insisted. “It’s all unnecessary.” William felt irritation rising. Arguing was pointless. But what else could he do?
Reforming his wife seemed impossible. “I’m not getting a divorce,” he thought.
Yet as he sat there, watching the night settle outside, he made up his mind.
“They won’t win,” William said aloud. “I won’t let them have my son. I won’t back down. Things will go my way!”
