My Daughter’s Boyfriend Moved Into My Apartment — and Was Shocked When I Stopped Feeding Him
“Mom, Gleb and I have decided we’re going to live together!” Dasha blurted out from the doorway, without even taking off her sneakers. Her eyes were shining with that feverish glow people only have at twenty, when it feels as though the whole world revolves around them.
Olga froze, slowly stirring the onions she was frying for soup. An ordinary Tuesday evening suddenly stopped being ordinary.
“Well, isn’t that wonderful,” Olga replied calmly, though something tightened in her chest. “And where exactly is Gleb planning to build this little family nest of yours? Has he found a cozy studio near the university?”
Dasha hesitated and began untying her shoelaces, avoiding her mother’s eyes.
“Well… you see, Mom, rent is so expensive right now! Why throw thirty thousand a month into some stranger’s pocket? Gleb says it’s irrational. We’ll live here, in my room. It’s big enough. There’s plenty of space for us.”
Olga turned off the stove. The silence in the kitchen became thick, almost tangible.
“Here? In this two-room apartment where I have finally taught myself to walk around in a robe and drink my coffee in peace? Dasha, sweetheart, and what exactly will this ‘we’ be living on? The utility bills will go up, and groceries cost a fortune these days.”
“Mom, he works part-time!” Dasha protested. “And anyway, he’s the love of my life. You just don’t understand. Everything is serious between us. I’ll take care of him myself, honestly! I’ll cook, do laundry, clean… You won’t even notice him!”
Olga sighed. She knew that tone. Arguing now would only make her enemy number one. She looked out the window and made a decision.
“All right. But on my terms. Since you’re adults and building a family, the budget will be separate. Gleb pays half for electricity and water, buys food for the two of you, and you, as the ‘keeper of the hearth,’ take care of everything else for him. My groceries remain mine. Agreed?”
“Of course!” Dasha threw her arms around her mother’s neck. “You’ll see, Gleb is wonderful. He’ll even help you around the house!”
The story behind this “great love” was almost painfully ordinary. Gleb had appeared in Dasha’s life six months earlier. Tall, curly-haired, with a guitar and a permanent haze in his eyes — the classic image of an “unrecognized genius” from the provinces. He had come from a small settlement, got into university on a state-funded place, and somehow immediately decided that life in the capital should simply fall at his feet.
Olga had seen him a couple of times. He was polite, but there was something soft and shapeless about him inside. He lacked that inner backbone that turns a man into someone others can rely on. But Dasha, an excellent student and her mother’s girl, fell head over heels. She wanted to care for him, feed him, and inspire him.
The move happened on Saturday. Gleb dragged in two huge suitcases and a computer tower — “for studying and work.”
“Hello, Olga Nikolaevna,” he said cheerfully, walking into the room in socks that were far from clean. “Don’t worry, I’m not a demanding person.”
By that evening, it became clear that his “undemanding” nature had limits. Olga accidentally overheard a conversation from her daughter’s room.
“Dasha, is there no salad? And maybe a little meat with the pasta? I’m a man, I need energy.”
“Gleb, sweetheart, please wait. I’ll get my scholarship tomorrow and buy some chicken. For now, it’s just pasta with butter.”
“Fine,” the “provider” graciously agreed. “By the way, I quit that part-time job. The boss was a tyrant. He expected me to write reports in my personal time. I’ll find something more respectable.”
Olga stood in the hallway and only gave a quiet snort. Well then, children, learn how adult life works.
Monday morning began with an unpleasant discovery. Olga was used to having a proper breakfast: a couple of sandwiches with expensive smoked sausage and hard cheese, which she bought especially for herself. When she opened the fridge, she saw an empty shelf. Almost empty, to be precise — one lonely end piece of bread was lying there.
“Dasha!” she called, trying to stay calm.
A sleepy Gleb drifted out of the room wearing only his underwear.
“Oh, good morning, Olga Nikolaevna. Is the sausage gone? I stayed up late at the computer and had a little snack. You’re not offended, are you? In a big family, as they say…”
Olga slowly turned toward him. Gleb stood there scratching his stomach, genuinely unable to understand what the problem was.
“In a big family, Gleb, everyone knows whose money bought the sausage. That was my breakfast. Dasha!” Olga looked at her daughter, who had just come out of the room. “Did I warn you?”
“Mom, why are you making a scandal over a couple slices of sausage?” Dasha said, rubbing her sleepy eyes. “The person was hungry!”
“Then the person should go to the store and buy food. Since you’ve decided to live an adult life, feed yourselves. From now on, I’m not buying groceries for anyone else. Everyone eats separately.”
Gleb snorted and went into the bathroom. The water ran for forty minutes. Olga stood by the kitchen window and watched clouds gathering in the sky. This was only the first storm.
That evening, Olga did not cook. She ordered sushi for herself — exactly one set. As soon as the courier left, Gleb rushed into the kitchen, drawn by the bright packaging.
“Oh, rolls! Great, I’m starving. Dasha was going to make buckwheat, and I’m not really into that…”
He reached for the box, but Olga gently and firmly covered it with her hand.
“This is my dinner, Gleb. I ordered it for one person. With my own money.”
“Are you seriously being stingy?” he asked, genuinely outraged.
“I’m not being stingy. You are a grown man. If you decided to live like a family man, then you need to think about how to support yourself. So far, you’ve only managed to afford buckwheat. So go eat buckwheat.”
For the next week, the “young couple” survived on cheap frozen food and instant meals. Dasha began to look worn out. She tried to combine university with evening shifts at a call center just to put something in the fridge. Gleb, meanwhile, was “finding himself.” His search usually consisted of scrolling through job listings from the couch and spending hours playing online games.
By the end of the month, the utility bills arrived. The amount was impressive. Gleb loved taking hour-long baths, the light in their room stayed on around the clock, and his computer tower hummed like a small factory.
Olga placed the bills on the table.
“Five thousand from you,” she said briefly.
“How much?!” Gleb nearly choked on a cheap cookie. “Olga Nikolaevna, have you lost your mind? We’re already barely eating! Dasha’s salary is delayed, and I’m only doing an internship right now… Where are we supposed to get that kind of money?”
“Gleb, you take baths twice a day. You play games that consume electricity. Why should I pay for your comfort?”
“Well, you’re the homeowner… You’re a mother!” Gleb began to boil over. “Can’t you spare something for the kids?”
“You are not my son, Gleb. You are my daughter’s boyfriend who came onto my territory. Either you pay, or…”
“Or what? You’ll throw us out on the street?” Gleb smirked boldly, confident that a mother would never go against her daughter.
Olga did not answer. She paid the utility bills, but she did not pay for the internet. That evening, Gleb stormed into her room while she was calmly reading a book under the light of her desk lamp.
“My internet is gone! I have coursework to write, deadlines are burning! Did you not pay for the connection?”
“I didn’t,” Olga said, turning a page. “I have enough internet at work. At home, I prefer television or books. If you need internet for studying or working, go pay for it. The router is in the hallway, and you know the password.”
“This is… this is bullying!” Gleb shouted. “How can you do this? You’re an adult woman! You’re supposed to have a conscience!”
“Conscience, dear Gleb, is when you don’t climb onto the neck of a woman twice your age. You have legs, arms, and an ego taller than a television tower. Go earn some money.”
A couple of days later, Olga’s phone rang. She saw an unfamiliar number but answered.
“Hello, Olga? This is Raisa Ivanovna, Gleb’s mother,” said a voice as sugary as over-sweetened tea. “Oh, how are our young people doing? Have they settled in?”
“Hello, Raisa Ivanovna. They’ve settled in. Gleb eats, sleeps, and bathes a great deal.”
“Oh, why put it like that…” the voice on the other end immediately became offended. “It’s hard for them right now. They’re just starting out! They need a little push, some parental support. You understand, Moscow is an expensive city. We’re barely surviving here in the settlement… I still have two daughters to raise and marry off. And you, Dasha told me, are a well-off woman with a good job…”
Olga felt a cold anger rising inside her.
“Raisa Ivanovna, let’s make this clear. I support myself. I never agreed to feed and maintain your son. If you think he needs a ‘push,’ send him money for groceries and internet. I have already helped by giving him a roof over his head. For free, I might add.”
“What a greedy woman you are!” Gleb’s mother shrieked. “You don’t care about your own child, and you’re tormenting someone else’s! How can you sleep peacefully in your apartment while the children are going hungry?”
The phone screen blinked and went dark — Raisa Ivanovna had angrily hung up. Olga placed the phone on the table. Her hands trembled slightly, but her soul felt strangely light. Now she understood where Gleb had gotten that unshakable certainty that everyone owed him something. The apple had not fallen far from the tree.
A month and a half after the beginning of this “family experiment,” Gleb finally realized that Olga was made of stone and that Dasha could no longer squeeze the last crumbs out of herself to support him. His interest in the “love of his life” began to fade rapidly.
One evening, Olga came home and found Dasha crying in the kitchen. Her daughter’s room was suspiciously quiet.
“He left?” Olga asked, putting her bag on a chair.
Dasha nodded through tears.
“He said I ‘suffocated him with domestic nonsense.’ He said there was a ‘toxic atmosphere’ in our home and that he couldn’t create when people kept reproaching him over every piece of bread. He packed his things and went to stay with some friend. He said he’d find people who would appreciate him…”
Olga walked over to her daughter and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. At first Dasha tensed, but then she leaned into her mother and let herself cry.
“Mom, forgive me… I’m such a fool. I thought it really was love, but he… He didn’t even offer to pay for the internet, even when my last money went to medicine for him, remember, when he ‘caught a cold’?”
“I remember, sweetheart. I remember everything.” Olga stroked her daughter’s hair. “You’re not a fool. You’re just kind. And people like Gleb smell kindness the way sharks smell blood. Do you know the main lesson here? A normal man, if he truly loves someone and wants to be with her, will never run into his girlfriend’s mother’s room. He’ll dig the earth with his bare hands, unload train cars if he has to, but he’ll rent at least a room in a shared apartment so he can be the master of his own home. But Gleb… he was simply looking for a comfortable harbor with free meals.”
Dasha lifted her head, wiping away tears.
“Do you know what he said before leaving? That you ‘broke his psyche’ with your materialism.”
Olga laughed — sincerely and loudly.
“Well, if refusing to feed a healthy grown man sausage is enough to break his psyche, I’m afraid to imagine what real life outside these walls will do to him.”
The kitchen once again smelled of a delicious dinner. Olga had roasted chicken with potatoes, and now they ate together, just the two of them, without tension and without glancing toward the hungry eyes in the hallway.
“Mom,” Dasha said quietly, poking at her plate with a fork. “I think I’ll take a break from relationships for now. I’ll focus on studying. And maybe I’ll sign up for those English courses I’ve wanted for so long.”
“Now that is the right idea,” Olga smiled. “Invest in yourself, daughter. That’s the safest investment. As for princes… they’ll come. Just make sure they arrive on horses, not riding on their mothers’ necks.”
Life returned to its normal rhythm. Silence, a robe, morning coffee with sausage and cheese. Olga knew she had done the right thing. Sometimes a mother’s love is not about cushioning every fall. Sometimes it is about removing the pillow in time, so the child can feel the firmness of the floor beneath her feet. That is how people grow up.