My father-in-law had an empty apartment before Christine and I got married. He rented it out for a while, but when he found out that he was going to be a grandfather, he suggested that we leave the apartment and move in there. It was a wonderful gift for our anniversary, and my wife and I, of course, were thrilled to move there.
The apartment was not bad, even though it was in an old house, it smelled a little damp and the furniture was from the last century. Since we finally didn’t have to pay rent, we decided to invest in repairs. First we bought a nice TV, then a new couch on which the two of us could sleep, and we bought wallpaper for the future nursery.
For a while we did not tell my father-in-law that we were going to change something in the apartment – we just did not think it was important. But when he came over unexpectedly and saw the building materials and a new couch, he threw a tantrum. The whole entryway probably heard him yelling at us.
– That’s my grandmother’s couch! How could you throw it away?!
He freaked out over the furniture and almost ate us, thinking we’d taken the shabby rug out, too. We really wanted to, but my wife thought we’d better send it to our parents at the cottage.
My father-in-law strictly forbade us to change the wallpaper or rearrange the furniture. He did not care that the apartment with the repair will look better. Unintentionally, during a rage, he blabbed that he was saving it not for us at all, but for Karina – my younger sister Kristina. She is still fifteen, but in five years we will have to move, so that Karina will live in this apartment.
So that’s the kind of gift with a catch. A very temporary gift.
Kristina’s pissed off that her father left her so poorly off. Karina gets the apartment, but what do we get? And she’s already six months pregnant. Much scarier to become parents, living with the idea that in a few years again have to move to a rented apartment, and now it would be better not to spend on sofas, and collect, save to buy their own real estate. Although, let’s be honest, how can we in five years with a small child save up for anything? It’s unrealistic.
My father-in-law literally set us up. It would have been better to live in a rented house and did not relax. And now we have nowhere to put the new wallpaper, and Kristina resents the family, especially the youngest, who gets everything.
