– …My daughter called during the week and said, “Mom, do you mind if I move in with you on Monday for a couple or three weeks? – says fifty-year-old Anna. – I say – yes, of course not against it, come on over. Mother-in-law is coming to visit again, apparently! And our Teresa seeks refuge…
– Hmm. You mean she has guests in her house, and she – from the house?
– Well… Mother-in-law is really not an easy person there! She’s always criticizing Theresa, provoking her. A peaceful coexistence does not work. Theresa doesn’t even try anymore. On the eve of her husband’s arrival, she packed a suitcase and came to us. We also have a bunch of people here, in one room with a sick grandmother, in another with her father and me, in the third – the younger twin daughters, students. But here at least all his friends! No one makes a scandal out of the blue…
– I see … And mother-in-law that, without an invitation to go to her son, then?
– In fact, to be fair I should say that she goes to his place, in his apartment! – Anna sighs. – My son-in-law went to college after high school. So parents decided not to put their boy in the dormitory and to buy an apartment… They scraped the baggage, sold the dacha, something else – and bought a tiny flat in the sleeping district, absolutely ruined. Of course, we bought it in our own name. They cleaned it up and patched it up, and now our son-in-law has been living there since our first year…
…My son-in-law is now thirty years old. He finished his studies long ago and now works. In the very apartment which his parents gave him the keys “for getting into the university” he has already made a good clean renovation on his own earnings, bought new furniture and household appliances.
Two and a half years ago, the man married Teresa, Anna’s daughter, and now the two of them live in that one-room apartment together. They are saving up for an extension, but it is not a very quick thing to do. And everything would be all right if it were not for Sofia’s regular visits.
In fact, she started coming two or three times a year when her son was a student. To check on the boy, to bring him homemade snacks, bake pies, walk around the capital, the stores and markets. This is also where Sofia’s friend from her youth lives, with whom they are sure to meet on every visit, and more than once.
Lately her mother-in-law also visits doctors in Moscow on the recommendation of her friend. She undergoes examinations, takes tests, consults on chronic diseases, because the medicine in the capital is much better.
– Well, this question is debatable, but Sofia got it into her head that it is so! – Anna sighs . – All the doctors and all the equipment are only in Moscow, in her opinion. In the regions there is no such thing… As a result, the visit drags on for three weeks, or even a month.
– And what is the rush? – Anna sighs. – She hasn’t worked for a long time now. Her husband is at home, but in my opinion they both welcome the chance to take a break from each other…
…As long as my son-in-law lived alone, there were no problems with his mother’s visits, of course. In the cramped one-room apartment the two of them could fit just the two of them. He slept on an air mattress and his mother had the couch.
With the advent of Teresa in his life things were not so easy. The three of us with mother-in-law in a one-bedroom apartment, and not just one night to sleep over, and live for quite a long time – it’s hard. Besides a special tact mother-in-law, according to Anna, is not burdened. She unceremoniously pokes her nose in everything, criticizes and imposes her point of view. If it were not for that, Pauline would have slept on the floor, no problem. But the criticism and scandals in his house is not wanted.
At the same time, Sophia does not seem to notice the inconvenience caused to others by her stay. Neither physical nor moral. She does her business in Moscow, takes her time, and does not hurry to leave.
– I don’t understand her at all! – Anna sighs. – Doesn’t she have any sense of tact? She knows that her son is not alone now, he has a wife. She has no such urgent need to come. And yet she goes and lives day after day, and she’s not going home… Teresa started coming to us now – well, that’s no good either. A husband there, a wife here… It’s a nuisance for everybody! If only there was a two-room apartment, well, okay. But as it is… My son is not very happy about such visits from his mother, but he can’t say a word – her apartment…
Is your mother-in-law really a monster? Yeah, she bought the apartment, let her son in, good for her. But the son has a family now. A wife who suits him. There’s no room in the apartment for guests. You don’t have to move around, stay at home? Or is it your son’s fault? Grew up, got a degree, could he give the apartment back to his mother? She would have driven herself, or rented it out, that’s up to her, and he brought his wife…
Maybe Theresa doesn’t look so good. She came all ready, she should be smiling and thankful. Receiving her mother-in-law to the highest standard, cooking and entertaining, not hiding under her mother’s wing from her guests…
Whose side are you on in this situation?
