“If you don’t like me coming into your home, then don’t come into mine either,” Lera said to her mother-in-law as she closed the door.
Lera wiped the sweat from her forehead and glanced at the clock. It was half past five in the evening, and nothing at home was ready yet for her husband’s return. The August heat made cleaning especially exhausting, but in the two-room apartment she had inherited from her parents, order always had to be maintained.
Konstantin was supposed to return from work in an hour, and the dishes from last night’s dinner were still sitting in the sink. Lera hurriedly turned on the water and began washing the plates when the doorbell rang.
“Who is it?” Lera called out without taking her hands out of the sink.
“It’s me, Galina Petrovna! Open up!”
Lera froze with a wet plate in her hands. Her mother-in-law had come again without warning. From the very beginning of their married life, relations with her husband’s mother had been strained. Galina Petrovna considered it her duty to control her son’s life and constantly offered advice no one had asked for.
“I’m coming!” Lera quickly dried her hands and went to open the door.
Galina Petrovna stood on the threshold with a dissatisfied expression on her face. A woman in her early sixties, always neatly groomed and well dressed, she surveyed the entryway with a critical eye.
“Hello,” her mother-in-law greeted her curtly as she stepped into the apartment. “Where is Konstantin?”
“He hasn’t come home from work yet,” Lera replied, closing the door. “Come into the kitchen, I’ll put the kettle on.”
Galina Petrovna went into the kitchen and immediately noticed the unwashed dishes in the sink. Her eyebrows shot up.
“I would have done this differently,” Galina Petrovna remarked, pointing at the sink. “Dishes should be washed right after eating, not left for later.”
Lera clenched her teeth and continued filling the kettle. Such comments accompanied every visit from her mother-in-law. Either the house wasn’t tidy enough, or the cooking wasn’t right, or her husband looked tired.
“I work until six,” Lera explained calmly. “I don’t always have time to do everything.”
“You need to use the sponge like this,” Galina Petrovna said, taking it from her and demonstrating how to wash the dishes properly. “In circular motions, not any old way.”
Lera silently watched her mother-in-law. The woman demonstrated the “correct” dishwashing technique as if Lera were a small child holding a sponge for the first time.
“Thank you, I’ll remember that,” Lera said through clenched teeth.
Konstantin came home when his mother had already been lecturing for half an hour about proper housekeeping. He hugged his wife and kissed his mother on the cheek.
“Mom, how are things? I didn’t expect to see you.”
“I just stopped by to check on things,” Galina Petrovna smiled at her son. “I wanted to make sure you’re eating properly and not overworking yourself.”
Konstantin pretended not to notice his mother’s behavior. He sat down at the table, ate dinner, and nodded at her remarks, avoiding any arguments. Lera understood that he simply didn’t want to quarrel with his mother, but his position irritated her.
After her mother-in-law left, Lera tried to talk to her husband.
“Kostya, your mother criticizes me every time she comes. Don’t you notice that?”
“Mom is just worried,” Konstantin brushed it off. “Don’t pay attention.”
“It’s easy to say ‘don’t pay attention’ when someone keeps explaining how to live properly in your own apartment.”
Her husband shrugged and turned on the television. The discussion ended before it even began.
A week later, Galina Petrovna showed up again without warning. This time she came in the morning, when Lera hadn’t yet cleaned up after breakfast. Breadcrumbs on the table and unwashed cups triggered another wave of dissatisfaction.
“Lera, haven’t you thought about buying a tablecloth?” her mother-in-law said, running a finger across the tabletop. “A table without a tablecloth looks uninviting.”
“We have a tablecloth, it’s just not laid out,” Lera replied, brushing away the crumbs.
“It should always be laid out. A home should look respectable at any time.”
Lera nodded and went to spread the tablecloth. Galina Petrovna walked into the living room and began inspecting the furniture.
“The sofa is in the wrong place,” her mother-in-law declared. “It would be better to put it against the other wall; the room would look bigger.”
“We like it the way it is,” Lera objected.
“I would arrange it differently,” Galina Petrovna insisted. “I have a good eye for interiors.”
Lera’s inner irritation grew with every visit. Her mother-in-law criticized absolutely everything—from the placement of the furniture to the way food was stored in the refrigerator. Konstantin still did not interfere in the conflicts, preferring to pretend that nothing was happening.
One Saturday morning, Galina Petrovna called Lera.
“Lera, I need help with cleaning. Come over and show me what you’re capable of.”
“Alright,” Lera agreed. “What time should I come?”
“Two o’clock. And bring gloves—we’ll be washing the windows.”
Lera set aside her weekend plans and arrived at her mother-in-law’s place at the appointed time. Galina Petrovna lived in a three-room apartment in an old building. The apartment was kept in perfect order, but she had decided to do a deep clean.
“We’ll start with the kitchen,” Galina Petrovna instructed. “Here’s a cloth—wipe down the countertop.”
Lera took the cloth and began wiping the kitchen table. The surface was practically clean, but her mother-in-law demanded that everything be polished to a shine.
“Not like that,” Galina Petrovna stopped her after a minute. “I don’t like how you’re doing it.”
Lera stopped and looked at her mother-in-law.
“Then how should I do it?”
“You need to wipe systematically, from one edge to the other. And you’re moving the cloth around chaotically.”
“I’m wiping the entire table,” Lera said in surprise. “What difference does the order make?”
“It makes a big difference!” Galina Petrovna snapped. “If you work without a system, dirty spots will remain.”
Lera tried wiping the table in the indicated order, but her mother-in-law continued to find faults.
“Too fast. You need to be more thorough. And rinse the cloth more often.”
“Galina Petrovna, maybe I’d better wash the windows?” Lera suggested.
“Finish with the table first. If you can’t handle simple tasks, how can I trust you with more complicated ones?”
Lera’s irritation reached its limit. Her mother-in-law was behaving as if Lera were an incompetent servant, not her son’s wife.
“I think the table is clean enough,” Lera said, setting the cloth aside.
“I think it’s not,” Galina Petrovna cut her off. “And in general, if you don’t want to help properly, you’d better go home.”
Lera took a deep breath. Her patience was gone.
“You know what, Galina Petrovna? If you don’t like how I clean, then clean it yourself. And if you don’t like how I run my household, then stop coming to our place with inspections.”
“What?!” Galina Petrovna turned red with indignation. “How dare you talk to me like that?…”
“Exactly the same way you talk to me,” Lera replied calmly. “I’m tired of the constant remarks and criticism. We’re adults and perfectly capable of deciding for ourselves how to live in our own apartment.”
“How dare you!” her mother-in-law shouted. “I’m Konstantin’s mother!”
“So what? That doesn’t give you the right to tell us how to live.”
Lera headed for the door. Galina Petrovna followed her, continuing to rant.
“I’ll tell my son the way you talk to me! He’ll find out what kind of wife he has!”
“Go ahead,” Lera said as she put on her shoes in the entryway. “Let him know the truth.”
“You’ll regret this!” Galina Petrovna screamed. “I won’t let some ungrateful girl behave like this!”
Lera walked out of her mother-in-law’s apartment and closed the door behind her. The stairwell was quiet; only Galina Petrovna’s indignant shouts could be heard from behind the door.
At home, Lera sat down at the kitchen table and tried to calm herself. The conflict had been inevitable, but now she needed to prepare for a conversation with her husband. Konstantin would definitely hear about what had happened from his mother, and it was unclear whose side he would take.
That evening, Konstantin came home from work earlier than usual. His face was gloomy.
“Mom called,” he said without even saying hello. “She told me about today.”
“And what did she say?” Lera asked calmly.
“That you were rude, refused to help, and left, slamming the door.”
“That’s not exactly how it was,” Lera said, and told her husband her version of events.
Konstantin listened silently, occasionally nodding. When his wife finished, he sat down across from her.
“Lera, my mother is an old woman. You could have put up with it.”
“Kostya, how much longer am I supposed to put up with it?” Lera looked at her husband. “Your mother comes into our home and criticizes everything. She tells us how to cook, how to clean, how to arrange the furniture. This is our apartment, our life.”
“She just wants to help.”
“Help?” Lera said in surprise. “She wants to control us. And you see it perfectly well, but you prefer to pretend that nothing is happening.”
Konstantin stood up and paced around the kitchen.
“What do you want? For me to quarrel with my mother?”
“I want you to talk to your mother and explain that we’re adults. That we have the right to live the way we see fit.”
“And if she gets offended and stops talking to us?”
“Honestly?” Lera shrugged. “That wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”
Her husband stopped and looked at her in surprise.
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely. Your mother turns every visit into an inspection. She criticizes everything, lectures us, and behaves as if we were children. I’m tired of it.”
Konstantin sat back down at the table. The silence dragged on.
The next day, Lera spent the entire evening thinking about what had happened. Her husband never gave a clear answer about talking to his mother. Konstantin went to bed, muttering something vague about how everything would sort itself out.
On Saturday morning, while Konstantin was still asleep, the doorbell rang. Lera went to the intercom and heard the familiar voice of Galina Petrovna.
“Open up, it’s me!”
Lera pressed the button and waited by the door. A few minutes later, her mother-in-law appeared on the doorstep. Galina Petrovna looked ceremonious and was holding a bag of groceries.
“Hello,” her mother-in-law greeted her curtly. “I brought homemade cutlets for Konstantin. I know he loves them.”
Lera straightened up and looked at her mother-in-law with a long, cold stare. After yesterday’s conflict, Galina Petrovna was behaving as if nothing had happened.
“Come in,” Lera said evenly, stepping aside.
Galina Petrovna went into the kitchen and began taking containers of food out of the bag.
“Where’s my son? Still sleeping? It’s already eleven in the morning!” the mother-in-law shook her head. “He should go to bed earlier—then it would be easier to wake up.”
“Konstantin works all week,” Lera replied. “Weekends are for rest.”
“You can rest usefully too,” Galina Petrovna remarked, looking around the kitchen. “For example, the stove could have been cleaned better. See those streaks on the surface?”
Lera felt irritation start to boil inside her again. Her mother-in-law was continuing her inspections as if yesterday’s conversation had been nothing more than a misunderstanding.
“Galina Petrovna,” Lera said slowly, “why did you ask me to help you yesterday if the result was going to disappoint you anyway?”
Her mother-in-law waved it off and continued arranging the containers in the refrigerator.
“Don’t take it personally. I just have my own standards. I’m used to doing everything properly.”
“So I do things improperly, then?”
“Well, let’s say you don’t always meet the required level,” Galina Petrovna shrugged. “It’s nothing terrible—you can learn.”
Lera realized it was time to stop this endless exchange of dissatisfaction. Her mother-in-law would never change her attitude, and Konstantin would not stand up for his wife. That meant she had to act on her own.
“I see,” Lera nodded. “Thank you for your honesty.”
“Well, now we understand each other,” Galina Petrovna said with satisfaction. “The main thing is not to take offense, but to work on yourself.”
Konstantin, now awake, came into the kitchen wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. Seeing his mother, he was delighted and kissed Galina Petrovna on the cheek.
“Mom! I didn’t expect to see you so early.”
“I brought you some cutlets,” his mother said affectionately. “I know you’ve loved them since childhood.”
“Thank you!” Konstantin opened the container and inhaled the aroma. “Smells wonderful.”
Lera silently watched the scene. Mother and son spoke warmly and naturally, as if they had completely forgotten about yesterday’s conflict. Galina Petrovna told her son the news, asked about his work, and gave him health advice.
After her mother-in-law left, Lera spent the whole day thinking about the situation. In the evening, while Konstantin was watching television, his wife walked up to him.
