What do you want?” Karina asked without opening the door. “I think you already said everything you wanted to say yesterday.”
“Actually, I came to my son’s house! And I want to babysit my grandson!” The woman behind the door had no intention of leaving.
“Your son is not home. And when he does come, talk to him outside or anywhere else!”
At that moment, Karina herself didn’t know how long she would hold out or if she had the strength not to open the door. The uninvited guest was in no hurry to leave. She called her son and began to complain to him.
However, the hostess had nothing to lose: from the very beginning, her relationship with her mother-in-law had been strained.
The woman felt that Vlad’s mother had hated her even before they met. Of course, she was not Natasha, Vladislav’s first wife, whom Elena Grigorievna loved so much.
Karina learned the story of her husband’s love and his first wife from his mother.
“They had no chance not to fall in love. I was inseparable from Natasha’s mother all through college,” Elena Grigorievna proudly recounted at her first meeting with Karina. “So we introduced our children. They were such a beautiful couple! Vlad used to carry Natasha in his arms, ready to do anything for her. Oh, those were happy times…”
“So why did they separate if they loved each other so much?” Karina looked at the woman with confusion.
“Because of foolishness,” she said bluntly.
That’s how Karina realized that she would never have a good relationship with her husband’s mother, no chance. And she no longer wanted to try.
At first, the girl even thought about breaking up with her boyfriend because of his mother and her hurtful remarks. But she decided that was foolish.
So she had to endure. And the cutting remarks from Elena Grigorievna coming through the phone when Vlad talked to her. And the woman’s constant nostalgia for her former daughter-in-law.
Vlad tried to keep his mother away from Karina; they met very rarely. But, of course, she was invited to the wedding.
“I remember Natasha’s wedding dress was so elegant,” Elena Grigorievna said openly in front of the bride. After which the groom’s friends immediately took her aside. Both they and the master of ceremonies were warned not to give the new husband’s mother the floor and to keep her away from the bride.
So the rest of the wedding went well.
The newlyweds lived in a two-room apartment that Karina’s parents had bought for her while she was still a student. After the wedding, the young couple decided to update the furnishings and renovated the apartment.
To save money, they did the repairs themselves, only inviting specialists for the most difficult jobs. When everything was ready, Vlad told his mother over the phone that it turned out quite well.
“Well, great! When can I come visit you?” Elena Grigorievna asked.
The man remained silent. He understood that Karina wouldn’t want to see his mother in their apartment, but he didn’t want to refuse his mom either.
“Will you be home on Saturday?” the woman pressed.
“I’ll talk to Karina,” Vlad promised.
“What is there to talk about? I’m his mother, not a stranger. I need to see how my son has settled.”
Hearing from her husband that his mother wanted to visit, Karina felt downhearted. She did not want to see this unpleasant woman here. Yet she agreed to receive Elena Grigorievna because she felt confident in her own apartment.
But Elena Grigorievna considered herself the mistress of the situation even then.
“Yes, son, that’s what it means to have good hands! You made such a gem out of some old shed!” the woman commented, looking around.
“What do you mean, ‘old shed’?” Karina was outraged. “It wasn’t that bad here. And we only did cosmetic repairs, not a full renovation.”
The mother-in-law ignored the hostess’s words.
“Hmph,” Elena Grigorievna said displeased, peeking into the kitchen cupboards. “Your grains are all mixed—sometimes in jars, sometimes in bags… You know how it is at Natasha’s? Everything is stored in beautiful matching containers. Open the cupboard, and it looks like a picture in a magazine — a real pleasure to look at!”
“Maybe you should go to Natasha’s then?” Karina couldn’t hold back.
“I go there already. Oh, she got married, has a new family now,” the woman sighed sadly. It was clear she still hoped her son would reunite with his former wife.
When all three sat down at the table, Elena Grigorievna naturally did not miss the chance to compare the cooking skills of the former and current daughters-in-law — naturally, not in favor of the latter.
Karina didn’t stay silent, answering snide remarks with sharp ones of her own. Vlad hovered between the two, constantly admonishing his mother and putting her in her place.
“I don’t want to see her here anymore,” Karina told her husband after Elena Grigorievna left.
Vlad himself had enough of the visit to realize that it was better to meet his mother on neutral ground and as rarely as possible.
The next time they met was a year later at his birthday party. The man celebrated with family and friends at a restaurant and couldn’t avoid inviting his mother. Naturally, the mother-in-law did not miss the chance to jab at the daughter-in-law once again.
“Aren’t you going to give me any grandchildren?” she asked in front of the guests.
Everyone fell silent. Most found the question tactless.
“Well, Natasha is already eight months pregnant,” Elena Grigorievna continued, emphasizing her words and looking at Vlad, as if hinting that he had missed a lot. “If some people hadn’t been showing off, they’d soon be fathers too…”
“I have a toast ready,” a guest came to the rescue. “Let’s drink to the birthday boy’s mother! God forbid to have a mother-in-law like her…”
The guests laughed, and the tension eased. Elena Grigorievna pouted but quickly calmed down and joined the conversations.
But it took great effort for Karina not to cry that evening. She wanted a child very much but hadn’t been able to get pregnant yet.
The miracle happened later. Vlad and Karina didn’t tell Elena Grigorievna they were expecting until the birth. And not without reason, as it turned out.
Because the woman threw a huge scandal at her son when she found out about the baby’s birth.
“How could you hide this from me?” she shouted. “See what you’re like! I was one of the first to find out about Natasha’s pregnancy! And you kept it from me!”
The young parents didn’t tell the grandmother the discharge date or the hospital. Just to be safe. She kept wanting to come see the baby, and Vlad gave in.
“Karinochka, she’s the grandmother! What if she sees our Timosha and softens up? Then she’ll treat you differently,” the man persuaded.
“I know what she’ll say! That Natasha’s baby is prettier, healthier, better… She’s not needed here, Vlad.”
The man didn’t argue with his wife. He didn’t want the nursing mother to get upset about anything.
But Elena Grigorievna showed up uninvited.
“I’m the grandmother! And I want to see my grandson!” she demanded from the doorstep.
Karina and Vlad gave in. The guest came into the apartment carrying a small bag.
“Here, I brought proper diapers. I see it was not for nothing,” she began, looking at the baby in Karina’s arms. “Otherwise, you wrap my handsome boy in some strange rags. What’s wrong, my baby? Are your parents hurting you? Are they? I’ll show them!”
The young parents didn’t comment on the grandmother’s words. They let her hold Timofey, served tea, and hinted they could no longer pay attention to her.
And she obediently left. Karina hoped it would be a long farewell, but the mother-in-law came again uninvited.
This time Vlad was at work, and Karina had put their son to sleep. The young mother started preparing dinner when the mother-in-law rang the doorbell.
“Timosha is sleeping,” Karina explained, hoping the mother-in-law would decide to stay outside until the child woke.
But she had no intention of leaving.
“That’s okay, I’ll wait,” she said heading to the nursery.
The hostess returned to the kitchen. Soon the guest came there as well.
“Oh, you cut the potatoes so big,” she began to comment. “I saw you have a pile of un-ironed diapers. When are you going to iron them?”
“As soon as I finish dinner. But if you want, you can help me.”
“No way. I raised Vlad alone, without the help of mothers and grandmothers. And I never complained. By the way, Natasha doesn’t have such a mess.”
“Elena Grigorievna, why do you keep bringing up Natasha? Get used to the fact that I’m Vlad’s wife, not her. She’s probably happy she doesn’t have a mother-in-law like you.”
“Don’t make that up!” the woman was offended. “I have a great relationship with her. And you should consider my remarks and fix your mistakes! And don’t think you can hold my son with a child. If he decides to leave you, I’ll support him!”
“He’ll probably stop talking to you first.”
“Don’t count on it!”
They exchanged a few more unpleasant words.
“Get out of my house,” Karina ordered. Elena Grigorievna, not waiting for the grandson to wake, proudly left the apartment.
“Now I hope she’s too proud to show up here again,” the hostess hoped. She told her husband everything that evening, but he had already heard his mother’s version before coming home. Elena Grigorievna, sticking to her repertoire, badmouthed her daughter-in-law and told her son she was insulted and kicked out.
Vlad now also hoped that after this, his mother would at least leave them alone for a while. But she came again, and again — when the husband was at work.
She arrived and knocked.
“What do you want?” Karina asked without opening the door. She saw her mother-in-law through the peephole and decided not to open. “I think you already said everything you wanted to say yesterday.”
“Actually, I came to my son’s house! And I want to babysit my grandson!” The woman behind the door had no intention of leaving.
“Your son isn’t here. And when he does come, talk to him outside or somewhere else! And it’s better for the grandson not to know such a grandmother! Go babysit at Natasha’s, she’ll be glad.”
Elena Grigorievna started knocking more insistently and demanded to be let into the apartment. Then she called her son.
Vlad arrived an hour later. All this time, his mother stood by the door and did not leave her post. She expected her son to stand up for her, to put his wife in her place. But he only put his arm around Elena Grigorievna’s shoulders and led her out.
“Stop interfering in my family,” he said, looking her in the eyes.
“Son, this is your family!”
“You’re my mother. But my wife and child are more important to me. And if you interfere with us, I’ll have to stop all contact with you and take my family to another city.”
Elena Grigorievna clutched her chest.
“Do you want to disown your own mother?” she exclaimed.
“I want peace. Oh, here’s your taxi. Leave, Mom. Sorry, but you’re not welcome here.”
Vlad quickly turned and almost ran into the building. It was painful for him to say such things to his mother, and he didn’t want to see her disappointed face.
Elena Grigorievna cried. Then she called her friend — Natasha’s mother — and asked to meet. She had held a grudge against her children and didn’t communicate with them for a long time. Vlad and Karina were only glad about this.