“Your mother means nothing to me, and I absolutely do not need her permission to go on vacation!” Masha declared to her husband.
Today her husband had upset Masha very much. And not for the first time.
Everything that had to do with his mother now made Masha feel uncomfortable. It plunged her into melancholy and a sense of malaise. She wanted to run far away from that family, but the only thing stopping her was the fact that she truly loved her husband. So for now, she kept fighting.
And yet everything had started so well a year ago, when Alexei introduced her to his future mother-in-law!
Larisa Petrovna had been the embodiment of charm. She tried so hard to impress her younger son’s future wife that she clearly overdid it. And Masha noticed, although she chalked it up to nerves and paid little attention. After all, she wasn’t planning to live with the woman.
“Mashenka, I dream so much of my son being happy that I absolutely don’t care who he chooses as his partner. Yes, I’m such a modern and progressive mother!” she proclaimed proudly.
“Seriously?” Maria asked in genuine surprise.
“Absolutely! Take you, for example. I’m perfectly willing to overlook the fact that your job is obviously not well-paid and that you most likely don’t have a university degree… Isn’t that right?”
Any intelligent person could see that she was trying to dig for the truth. At the same time, the future mother-in-law, still smiling broadly, stared with clear disdain at Masha’s ripped jeans and stretched-out T-shirt — the clothes she happened to be wearing that day.
Masha didn’t care much about her appearance, especially at that moment. She and Lyosha were returning from friends’ at their dacha, and in a sudden impulse, driven by emotion, he decided to take his beloved to meet his parents on the spot.
“Are you serious?” Masha burst out laughing. “Right now, dressed like this? Are you sure your mother will understand? She won’t throw me out?”
“Oh, Masha, don’t be a prude and don’t think my mom is some stuck-up society lady. Everything will be fine!” Alexei assured her. “She doesn’t care what you’re wearing. The main thing is that you love me.”
Hearing the future mother-in-law’s words, Masha was slightly taken aback but chose not to show it.
“Well, it’s great that you’re willing to make such sacrifices for your son. But let me reassure you, you don’t have to worry about me. I do have a proper education — a university degree — and my job is quite good too. I have no complaints; I earn enough to live comfortably and still have some left over.”
“Really?” Larisa Petrovna said skeptically, still eyeing Masha’s outfit with disgust. “Well, all right, if you say so. I won’t argue.”
Later, when she learned from her son that his future wife was the head of a department at a large bank, she calmed down immediately. And after the wedding, she wouldn’t stop bragging to all her friends and acquaintances that her daughter-in-law was the deputy director of a major bank — clearly promoting her to a higher position.
She did this not out of ignorance, but for a specific reason only she knew. Larisa had long-term plans related to her daughter-in-law’s financial status.
After the wedding, the young couple settled in a newly purchased apartment acquired in shared ownership. Their finances allowed them to buy a one-bedroom place without any loans or mortgages.
But Larisa Petrovna quickly assessed the situation and decided to take advantage of the fact that her daughter-in-law worked at a bank — and asked her to borrow a large sum of money.
“Mashenka, I know banks give their employees loans with very low interest rates. You don’t have any loans yet, right? So I have a request — take out a loan for us, we need to replace our car,” she began, trying to steer the conversation to her advantage.
“No, I won’t,” Maria cut her off without hesitation. “We have a good relationship right now. And I want it to stay that way. If I take a loan for you, every month I’ll be worrying whether you made the payment. And if you’re late or, worse, can’t pay at all, we’ll have to fight over it. And I don’t want that. So you will take a loan yourselves. If you want, I can help you with the paperwork so it goes faster — but nothing more.”
“What are you imagining?! Why wouldn’t we pay on time? We’re responsible, honest people. We have no reason to let you down — I understand perfectly well, it’s your reputation. I promise to pay exactly on time every month!” her mother-in-law insisted.
“No,” Masha refused again, deeply upsetting her mother-in-law — who held a grudge against her.
But not for long. Soon a different idea came to her mind.
“Mashenka, lend us some money. Not much, maybe a hundred thousand. Arkady and I decided to go to the seaside, to a health resort. We have part of the amount, but it’s not enough. I know you have a good salary. And we’ll pay you back. As soon as we return and my husband gets his paycheck, we’ll give everything back immediately.”
“Larisa Petrovna, the fact that I work at a bank does not give you the right to assume that I rake in money with a shovel. No, that’s far from true. And every bit of my salary is already accounted for.”
“But Masha!” her mother-in-law protested.
“You know very well that Alexei and I are renovating our new apartment right now, don’t you? And you also know that we ordered furniture for the kitchen and the living room. We told you about that too. So why should I give you such a large amount?”
“Oh please, don’t start! You do have money— I know it! You work in a bank, not a fish kiosk. Just admit you simply don’t want to give it to us. I bet you don’t deprive your parents, always slipping them some cash,” the mother-in-law suddenly burst out.
“Don’t say nonsense,” Masha replied, not wanting a conflict with her husband’s mother.
But it was as if the woman was determined to quarrel with her no matter what. Larisa felt hurt and annoyed. Only yesterday she had spoken on the phone with an old friend and bragged that her daughter-in-law, who worked at the bank as a deputy director, had paid for a three-week seaside spa vacation for her and her husband.
“Yes, that’s how lucky we are, Tanechka! I’m overjoyed with the wife our Lyoshenka chose. We’ll be living in luxury now. After all, she works at a bank, has money, and holds an important position.”
But now it turned out that they weren’t going anywhere at all, because they only had exactly one-third of the amount needed for the trip.
“So you’re refusing us completely? Aren’t you afraid of ruining your relationship with me?” the mother-in-law used her final argument.
“If you’re a smart woman, that won’t happen,” Maria concluded the unpleasant conversation.
A couple of days later, her husband told Masha that his parents had to go into debt and pressure all the relatives to help cover the cost of the health resort trip.
“Well, it’s good that your parents found a solution,” was all his wife replied.
Nevertheless, Alexei’s mother continued her tactics aimed at taming the rebellious nature of her daughter-in-law.
“Alyosha, this won’t do. Why is your wife behaving like this?…”
“What do you mean?” her son was taken aback, not suspecting the depth of the growing conflict.
“What do I mean? Exactly what I said! Your father and I are strangers to Masha — it’s obvious! She doesn’t care at all about our problems, she’s not involved in our family’s life at all! This is unacceptable! You must have a serious conversation with your wife and explain to her that since she’s become part of our family, she can’t just brush me off so dismissively and ignore the requests I make of her,” his mother lectured him.
“Mom, maybe things aren’t as bad as you think? If Masha refused you, she must’ve had a good reason.”
“A good reason? She just doesn’t want to spend money on us! She’s sitting on her money and hoarding it.”
“Mom, you’ve always been a smart woman. It’s strange to hear you talk like this,” her son said in surprise.
“Enough! Don’t you dare lecture me,” his mother cut him off, unwilling to listen to any reasoning — her resentment toward her daughter-in-law clouding everything.
The further it went, the worse the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law became. Every time they met, Larisa Petrovna seized the opportunity to jab at Masha, accusing her of coldness and indifference.
“Of course, why would you care about other people’s problems? You’ve got your own money, so you think you can look down on everyone else, right?”
“Mom, stop it! What are you even saying?” her son would lose patience.
“I won’t stop. I have the right to my opinion.”
Masha was seriously considering cutting off contact with her in-laws entirely or reducing it to a minimum. She mentioned this to her husband.
“My mother will be offended.”
“She’s always offended. What will change?” Maria replied sincerely.
“Maybe you shouldn’t take such drastic steps? They’re still my parents.”
“I don’t know… I’m not a fan of drama, but I’m not going to tolerate this attitude toward myself either.”
But fate intervened.
One weekend morning, Larisa Petrovna called early. She spoke with Alexei for a long time and then asked to speak with her daughter-in-law.
“Here, Mom wants to talk to you,” her husband said, sounding unusually gloomy.
“About what?”
“You’ll hear it yourself. I tried to explain everything to her, but… well, it’s my mom,” Alexei said, covering the phone with his hand.
“Hello, Maria,” Larisa Petrovna began in a formal tone. “What’s this nonsense you’ve come up with? What trip abroad is this?”
“We’re going on vacation. We’ve planned it for a long time. And we bought the trip in advance,” Maria replied calmly, knowing full well that her mother-in-law was already aware of everything.
“Good. Return the tickets and give the money to Pavel,” she ordered, referring to her older son. “He needs it more right now. He’s having serious problems, his family is falling apart. You two are young and healthy — you can travel next year. You won’t die from waiting!”
“No, that won’t happen. My husband and I will go on vacation as planned. And you will deal with your grown son’s problems on your own — not at our expense.”
Masha remained perfectly calm. She expected nothing less from her mother-in-law and wasn’t surprised by what she heard.
“How dare you? Have you forgotten who you’re talking to? I’m your husband’s mother! Older than you and wiser, so you should at least respect me for that reason!”
“That’s a strange argument. But I’ll repeat myself — no. I am not sacrificing my vacation and long-awaited trip.”
“You don’t even know what happened to Pavel!”
“I don’t want to know. That’s it — conversation over.”
Masha hung up and looked irritably at her husband, who sat there with a sad, helpless expression.
“What now? Another world-ending disaster?” she asked with annoyance.
“Pasha really messed up. He really does need money — a lot of it.”
“And what do we have to do with it? Don’t tell me we should give up our trip to the seaside! That’s nonsense!”
“He’s my brother. I feel bad for him. We could—”
“No, we couldn’t! Stop it! Don’t act like your mother! She means nothing to me, and I’m not obligated to listen to her — let alone jump to obey her wild demands. I made it clear from day one that she’s not getting any money from us. Neither from me nor from you! Do you understand?”
“I understand, but Pasha… You see, his wife caught him with another woman. Now she’s threatening divorce. She says she’ll take the kids and move to her mother’s in Severodvinsk. Then neither Pasha nor our parents will ever see them again. It’s a huge stress for them. They love their grandchildren. And Pavel won’t be able to live without his kids.”
“He should’ve thought about his family before.”
“There’s no point talking about that now. He knows he was stupid. His wife told him that if he buys her a new, expensive car, she’ll stay with him. At least until the next mess.”
“Well then, let him buy it — he screwed up. You people are strange. How can a gift fix what happened? She’s milking your brother for money, that’s obvious. She wants to get as much as she can before the divorce,” Maria said thoughtfully.
“That’s not our business. He just asked us for help.”
“Yes, you’re right — it’s not our business. And there’s nothing we could help with anyway. All our money is tied up.”
“But Mash…”
“No. And tell your mother to stop pestering us and stop asking — or worse, demanding — money from us. She won’t get a single ruble.”
A month later, Maria and Alexei flew abroad for their vacation as planned.
When they returned, they learned that the mother-in-law now considered them “enemy number one.” She declared a boycott, refusing to speak to her son and daughter-in-law.
“Good. One less burden,” Masha said calmly.
Pavel eventually found the money somewhere, took on debts, but bought his wife the car she demanded. A month later, she filed for divorce and moved to her parents’ in a distant city, taking the children with her.
The mother-in-law missed her grandchildren terribly. She had no idea when she would see them again. But the worst was still something else.
Recently, Maria had surprised her husband with wonderful news — he was going to be a father. And this grandchild, too, Larisa Petrovna would not get to see. At least not while she remained at war with her younger son’s family.
