A new mum was happy at first, but soon she was in the middle of a family fight. She was shocked when a note and receipt from her mother-in-law showed up out of the blue, asking more than $200 for cleaning services.
Their mother-in-law was kind enough to offer to feed their dogs while they were in the hospital waiting for the baby to arrive. When they got back, though, they saw that she had cleaned the whole house, even the bedroom rugs that had been dirty when the woman’s waters broke.
The note listed the costs of cleaning, which included $200 worth of cleaning supplies and a day’s work at $25 an hour. The couple was surprised when they were asked to pay back the money, especially since they hadn’t asked for the cleaning services.
The husband took the initiative to talk to his mother about the problem. He thanked her for her help but also told her they were worried about what she was doing. He asked her why she had looked around their house, bought pricey cleaning supplies, and now she wanted to be paid.
The mother-in-law replied that she had done what she did out of kindness and couldn’t understand why they weren’t grateful. As things got worse, the mother-in-law’s efforts were praised by extended family members, while the couple’s reaction was criticised.
The couple was pulled between their values and keeping the peace in their family. The husband suggested that he pay his mother to stop the abuse, but the woman was strongly against it. Even though things were crazy, the mother-in-law offered to give them the cleaning supplies as a gift, but she still wanted to be paid for her time.
This situation makes me think about limits, being kind, and how families work. Was the mother-in-law’s demand fair, or did it go too far? Should the couple have been more thankful, or did they have every right to respond the way they did? As the argument goes on, many people are left to wonder: who is right and who is wrong?
