“I’m tired of looking after your son,” declared the daughter-in-law, then packed her bags and left for the seaside.
Evelyn Carter had a son.
He was a good ladhardworking and decent. His wife, however, was rather peculiar. One day, she refused to cook, then the next, she wouldn’t clean. Lately, she had been acting completely out of sorts.
Just yesterday, she started another row.
“Daniel,” she said to her husband, “I can’t take this anymore! You’re a grown man, but you behave like a child!”
Daniel was taken aback. He hadn’t asked for anything ridiculous. He just wanted Charlotte to find him some socks, iron his shirt, and remind him about the appointment at the GP.
“Mum always helped me,” he muttered.
“Well then, go and live with your mum!” shouted Charlotte.
The next day, she packed her suitcase.
“Daniel,” she said calmly, “I’m off to Brighton for a month. Maybe longer.”
“What do you meanlonger?”
“Just that. I’m tired of babysitting a grown man.”
Daniel tried to protest, but Charlotte just ignored him. She pulled out her mobile, dialed a number:
“Mrs. Carter? It’s Charlotte. If he can’t manage without a nanny, perhaps you could stay here for a bit. The spare keys are under the welcome mat.”
And she left.
Daniel now sits alone in a cold, empty flat, utterly lost. The fridge is bare, his socks are filthy, and the kitchen sink is overflowing with dishes.
A couple of days pass before he calls his mum:
“Mum, Charlotte’s lost the plot! Taken off to who knows where! What am I supposed to do?”
Evelyn Carter sighs. More problems with the daughter-in-law.
“Ill be there soon, Dan. Itll be alright.”
Within the hour, shes at his placecarrying a bag of groceries and that familiar motherly determination: Ill sort everything out.
But when she opens the door, she gasps.
The whole flat is a mess. Clothes scattered everywhere in the bedroom, piles of unwashed dishes in the kitchen, and dirty laundry overflowing in the bathroom.
Suddenly, Evelyn realises: her thirty-year-old son really can’t manage on his own. Not at all.
Shes done everything for him his whole lifeand made a child in an adults body.
“Mum,” Daniel whines, “whats for dinner? Where are my shirts? Whens Charlotte coming home?”
Evelyn starts cleaning quietly, but inside, a question keeps nagging her: What have I done?
Shed shielded her boy from anything domestic, from difficulties, from the real world!
Now, without a woman in the house, hes helpless.
And Charlotte? Charlotte simply ran away from this overgrown, helpless child.
Who could blame her?
Evelyn Carter stays at her sons for three days.
Each day, it becomes clearer: shes raised a big child.
Every morning, Daniel wakes up and immediately starts moaning:
“Mum, whats for breakfast? Wheres my shirt? Are there any clean socks?”
She cooks, irons, cleans silently, and watches.
Imaginea thirty-year-old man, unable to work the washing machine! Didnt know how much a loaf of bread costs! Even making a cup of tea seemed a struggleburning his hand on the kettle or spilling sugar everywhere.
“Mum,” he complains in the evenings, “Charlottes gone mad! She used to at least pretend she liked me. Now shes completely different, like a stranger!”
“And how do you behave?” Evelyn asks gently.
“Same as always! I dont ask for much. I just want a wife, not a hateful old bat!”
She looks at her son. Goodness. He really doesnt get it.
“Dan, do you ever help Charlotte?”
“What do you mean?” Daniel looks honestly confused. “I go to work! I bring in money! Isnt that enough?”
“But at home?”
“At home? Im tired from work! I just want to relax. Shes always wanting somethingwash the dishes, go to Tesco for bits and bobs. But thats womens work!”
Heres the twist: Evelyn hears her own words from years ago.
“Dan, dont touch thatthe washing up is for mum.” “Dont bother going to the shopIll get there quicker.” “Youre a boy, there are more important things for you.”
She realised shed made a monster.
The more she observed him, the scarier it got.
Daniel came home and collapsed on the sofa. He waited for dinner. Waited for someone to tell him the news of the day. Waited for entertainment.
And when food didnt appear automatically, he started whining:
“Mum, whens dinner? Im starving!”
Like a child.
Worst of all were his complaints about Charlotte.
“Shes become moody,” hed say. “Always angry. Maybe she needs to see the doctor? Check her hormones?”
“Or maybe shes just worn out?” his mother suggests.
“Why would she be tired? We both work. Shes supposed to run the home anyway.”
“Supposed to?!” Evelyn suddenly snaps. “Who ever told you that?”
Daniel looks stunned. His mothers never raised her voice to him before.
On the fourth evening, Evelyn Carter reaches her limit.
Daniels on the sofa, scrolling through his phone and sighing loudly, all bored with no wife around. The kitchen is a disaster, socks on the floor, bed unmade.
“Mum,” he whines, “whats for dinner?”
Evelyn stands at the stove, ladling in soupjust as shes done for thirty years.
Suddenly she thinks: enough.
“Daniel,” she says, switching off the hob. “We need a talk.”
“Yeah, Im listening,” he mutters, not looking up from his phone.
“Put your phone down. And look at me.”
Something in her tone makes him obey.
“Son,” Evelyn starts quietly, “do you understand why Charlotte left?”
“Shell be backshe just got upset. Women are emotional. Shell cool off and come home.”
“She wont.”
“What do you mean, wont?”
“Exactly that. Because shes tired of playing mother to a big child.”
Daniel leaps off the sofa:
“Mum! What are you talking about? Ive got a job, I bring in money!”
“So what?” Evelyn straightens herself. “What about at home? Cant you use your hands? Are you blinded?”
Daniel pales.
“How can you say that? Im your son!”
“Exactly why I am saying it!” She sits, her hands trembling.
“Mum, are you alright?” Daniel asks, worried.
“Sick!” she laughs bitterly. “Sick with love. Blind, motherly love. I thought I was protecting you. Instead, I raised a selfish mana thirty-year-old whos useless without a woman. Who thinks the world owes him!”
“But” Daniel begins.
“But nothing!” she interrupts. “You think Charlotte should be your second mum? Wash up, cook, tidy after you? For what?”
“I work.”
“And so does she! And still keeps the home ticking over! What do you do? Lounge on the sofa and expect to be waited on!”
Daniels eyes fill with tears.
“Mum, thats how everyone lives.”
“Not everyone!” Evelyn shouts. “Decent men help their wives! Washing up, cooking, raising kids! You? You dont even know where the washing powder is!”
Daniel buries his face in his hands.
“Charlottes right,” Evelyn says quietly. “Shes had enough of being your mother. So have I.”
“What do you mean, had enough?”
“Just that.” Evelyn grabs her coat and handbag. “Im going home. You stay here. Alone. Try growing up for once.”
“Mum, please!” Daniel jumps up. “Alone? Wholl cook? Wholl clean?”
“You will!” she cries. “Like every normal adult!”
“But I dont know how!”
“Youll learn! Or stay an immature, lonely failure!”
Evelyn slips on her coat.
“Mum, dont leave!” Daniel pleads. “What will I do by myself?”
“What you shouldve learned to do twenty years ago,” she replies. “Live independently.”
And out she goes.
Daniel is left in his messy flat. For the first time in his lifecompletely alone.
Confronted at last by reality.
He sits on his sofa until midnight.
His stomachs rumbling. The dishes in the sink are starting to rot. Socks strewn everywhere.
“Blimey,” he mutters and, for the first time in thirty years, starts to wash the dishes himself.
Its a disaster. Plates slip, the washing up liquid stings his hands. But he manages.
Then he tries to make scrambled eggs. Burns the lot. Tries againedible enough by his standards.
The next morning, he gets it: Mum was right.
A week passes.
Day by day, Daniel learns to stand on his own two feet. Doing laundry, cooking, tidying, popping out for groceries and figuring out prices. Planning his day properly.
Turns outits actual work.
And he finally realises what Charlotte had been going through.
“Hi, Charlotte?” he calls her on Saturday.
“Yes?” Her voice is cold.
“Youre right,” Daniel jumps in. “Ive been a big kid.”
Charlotte says nothing.
“Ive lived alone a week. I know nowhow tough it was for you. Im sorry.”
After a long pause, she speaks.
“You know, your mum rang me yesterday,” she says eventually. “She apologised. Said she raised you the wrong way.”
Charlotte returns after a month.
She walks into a clean flat, greeted by a husband whos cooked dinner and welcomes her with flowers.
“Welcome home,” he says.
Evelyn Carter rings them once a week nowasks about life, but never invites herself over.
And one evening, as Daniel does the dishes after their meal, with Charlotte making tea, she says:
“You know, I like our new life.”
“So do I,” he replies, drying his hands on a tea towel. “Shame it took us this long to get here.”
“At least we got here,” Charlotte smiles.
And that was absolutely true.
