— “From now on, we’ll live on your salary, and I’ll give mine to Mom,” my husband stunned me with the announcement.
“Listen, if you still can’t see or understand the obvious, then I’ll tell you myself—your mother is reckless! She has serious problems with her judgment! Don’t you see it? How many more failed projects does she need before you finally understand that every one of her ideas is madness? Every new whim of your mother’s ends in debts and loans at best. At worst, it becomes our problem, placing a huge burden on our family budget. How much longer is she going to fill our heads with this nonsense?”
“Lyuba, stop, please! You’re talking about my mother. Don’t forget yourself.”
“How could I forget? God certainly gave me quite a mother-in-law—it’s a nightmare! Remember two years ago, when Deniska had just been born? She asked you for money to promote her business because she decided to bake pies and cakes for sale. She bought all sorts of baking supplies, edible decorations, ordered branded boxes, spent a fortune on advertising—and the result was zero. Nobody wanted her tasteless culinary masterpieces. But the debts remained. And you and I were the ones who paid them!”
“No one is immune to failure. Mom just needed to wait. She would eventually have found regular customers. She’s simply impatient. She wants everything immediately,” Matvey tried to defend his mother. “Besides, the market is crowded. Lots of people bake things for sale nowadays, so she couldn’t handle the competition.”
“And what about those ridiculous escape-room games your mother knew absolutely nothing about? That was complete nonsense! How did she even come up with that?”
“A friend suggested it. She said her son was doing it and had already made a lot of money.”
“Nonsense! Renting premises for a huge amount of money, hiring some strange people who promised your mother they’d build the entire system for an interesting game—and doing all of it while understanding absolutely nothing about the business. She basically threw her money away. In the end, those people kept stringing her along with promises and then disappeared with all the money. Isn’t that insanity? Your mother behaves like an irresponsible teenager, and you keep encouraging her. Maybe it’s finally time to put an end to this instead of financing yet another one of her hopeless projects.”
“Listen, Lyub, don’t get angry. This time it’s practically guaranteed to work. Mom explained everything to me in detail. She even showed me videos of people who have been breeding tropical butterflies at home for years. It’s simple and easy. And there’s demand. I think this time Mom will succeed, and she’ll finally be able to pay off all her debts and loans. We just need to give her a chance.”
“No! This time she can waste her time on nonsense without using our money! Enough is enough. How long can this go on?” Lyubov refused to agree with her husband.
“I already promised Mom,” Matvey argued. “How am I supposed to refuse her now? She’s already ordered the cocoons and an insectarium online. All that’s left is to make the advance payment. And I’m supposed to tell her no? Come on!”
“All right, then. If you won’t refuse her, I’ll do it myself!” his wife declared loudly, her patience finally exhausted.
Lyubov decided she was done being gentle with her mother-in-law.
She called an acquaintance who worked at the city employment center and, as a personal favor, asked her to email all available job vacancies in the district where her mother-in-law lived.
“Hello, Arina Romanovna,” Lyuba said after receiving the information and immediately calling her husband’s mother. “I have a business proposal for you, so we need to meet.”
“Oh, Lyubochka, of course we’ll meet!” her mother-in-law chirped happily, somehow deciding that her daughter-in-law wanted to support her new venture. “I’ll be waiting for you. Come over for tea, and we can discuss everything.”
Lyuba printed the entire list of vacancies her friend had sent her, placed the thick stack of pages into a plastic folder, and went to visit her mother-in-law.
When Arina Romanovna saw her serious, businesslike daughter-in-law standing at the door with a folder full of papers tucked under her arm, she was delighted.
So her daughter-in-law supported her after all!
Surely Lyuba was not only going to give her money but also share useful information about how to properly run her new butterfly-breeding business.
“Arina Romanovna,” Lyuba began sternly after sitting down on the sofa in the living room, still holding the folder. “Don’t you think you’ve become incredibly shameless?”
“What?” the woman said, stunned. She had been expecting something completely different from Matvey’s wife. “What did you say?”
“I said you’ve become shameless. How long are you going to keep using your son’s money? And mine too, by the way, because he and I are a family and our money is shared.”
“Lyuba, you… Why are you talking to me like this? I only wanted what was best!” Arina Romanovna still couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“What was best?” the angry daughter-in-law continued. “Do you seriously believe that leaving our family of four to survive for several months on my salary alone is ‘what’s best’? That’s astonishingly blatant selfishness and immaturity! Especially at your age!”
“Did you come here just to start a fight?” the mother-in-law asked, ignoring her husband’s pleased smirk.
Mikhail Dmitrievich was apparently rather happy that someone was finally giving his unreasonable wife some proper resistance.
“Yes, I did come to fight, you’re right—to knock some sense into you. But that’s not the only reason I came. I know perfectly well, Arina Romanovna, that thanks to your endless imagination, you’re up to your ears in debt. But from now on, you can no longer count on us to solve that problem. For my part, however, I’d like to offer you a wonderful alternative way to deal with your troubles and gradually pay off everything you owe,” Lyuba continued confidently and matter-of-factly.
“I’d be interested to hear it,” the mother-in-law replied with slight resentment in her voice. “You could have started with that instead of insulting me.”
“Good. I’m glad you’re interested. Here’s the folder, Arina Romanovna. It contains about ten pages listing all the available jobs in your area. Study them very carefully, and I’m sure you’ll find something interesting.”
“What?” the woman said, dumbfounded. She had expected something entirely different. “What exactly are you suggesting, you insolent girl?”
“Yes, exactly what you think. That’s precisely what you need right now, believe me. There’s a huge variety to choose from. Something for every taste, as they say—both in terms of the type of work and the salary. Choose one and get to work. Work hard and earn the money you need.”
“What? You expect me to go work as a janitor or a cleaner?” the mother-in-law suddenly shrieked loudly.
“Why jump straight to janitor? I happened to notice that they’re also looking for biologists. Though in your situation, you probably shouldn’t be too picky. And being a janitor is a perfectly respectable job too. At least the salary is stable, and you get plenty of fresh air,” Lyuba said with a smirk.
“And don’t forget—you still owe Matvey and me a considerable amount of money after your previous projects. And I have no intention of forgiving that debt.”
Lyuba went home with a clear conscience and a sense of having accomplished her mission.
A week later, her husband told her that his mother had found a job at a school as a laboratory assistant in the chemistry classroom while also working part-time as a cleaner.
Whether she would ever repay the money she owed them remained a big question, since her salary wasn’t very high.
But Lyubov had no doubt about one thing: from now on, her husband’s mother would finally stop bothering them with her ridiculous business ideas.
