“Well then, the child will no longer come to you!” — I said emotionally to my mother-in-law.
“Leave me alone!” — I almost shouted, looking my husband’s mother in the eyes. — “I’ve explained this to you a hundred times! I need to be close to my child, I don’t have time for arguments!”
I, Helen, have been married to Nikos for eight years. We live in a small village near Larissa, and, seemingly, everything is going well. But my mother-in-law, Despina, doesn’t leave me alone. She constantly accuses me of not sending our son, Michalis, to stay with her and Grandpa at their country house. She is a kind-hearted woman, but her bitterness grows like a snowball, and I have reached my breaking point.
“You used to send Michalis to us!” — she repeats. — “Grandpa and I do everything on our own, we want our grandchild with us. That incident was an accident! You would rest with your baby, and Michalis would have fun here.”
My daughter, Maria, is only one month old, while Michalis is almost four. Before, I often sent him to his grandparents for the weekend, to their country house near Volos. At that time, Nikos and I were fixing our mortgage, and I was happy that Michalis was in a safe place. My mother-in-law lives in a spacious house with a garden, they have a car — everything was convenient.
“Grandpa went to pick up Michalis, he’ll be here soon!” — Despina would call me. — “I bought clothes for the grandchild, there’s food for days, don’t load too much!”
She used to take care of Michalis: feeding him, taking him for walks, making sure he didn’t eat anything inappropriate. But she never came by herself to pick him up — “my health won’t let me,” she would say. She always sent Grandpa, Giannis. At that time, I was pregnant with Maria, couldn’t drive, and Nikos worked like a slave.
“And what’s wrong with Grandpa bringing him?” — my mother-in-law wondered. — “Michalis falls asleep right away in the car!”
It was true — my son would fall asleep almost immediately. But one day, everything changed. Grandpa brought Michalis back with a huge bump on his forehead — so big it made me shiver.
“He hit his head on the car,” Giannis muttered, avoiding my gaze.
How did he get hurt? It turned out that Grandpa had taken him out of his child seat, brought him with him to the gas station, and then didn’t put him back in the seat. He placed him on a regular seat, and then another car hit them. The impact wasn’t serious, but Michalis hit his head. He was terrified. How did this happen? Thank goodness he only came out with a bump, but what if it had been worse? I was in my last month of pregnancy, my nerves were ready to burst, and my fear sent me to obstetrics earlier than expected.
I told him everything, but then I calmed down. I thought it was an accident, it happens. My mother-in-law called me and said, “Nikos didn’t…” She asked me to go to the country house, but I refused because I would never forget Grandpa’s rudeness.