“Your Mother Is Coming to Stay for the Entire Holiday?! Then You Can Keep Her Company—Because I’m Leaving!”
Lena stood by the window, looking out at the snow-covered courtyard, where the groundskeeper was diligently clearing the paths of freshly fallen snow. It was December twenty-ninth. Two more working days, and the long-awaited holiday break would begin.
Almost two weeks of freedom!
She had already planned everything: a skiing trip through Serebryany Bor, the Aivazovsky exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery that she had never managed to visit in the autumn, a New Year’s Eve dinner with Marina and Sergey, and on January third, she and Igor were planning to spend a couple of days in Suzdal.
It was the perfect itinerary for an ideal vacation.
“Lena, where are you?” Igor’s voice came from the hallway.
“In the kitchen!”
Her husband appeared in the doorway, rubbing his cold hands together. He was always freezing after his evening runs, even when he wore thermal underwear.
“Listen, I have some news,” he began, pouring himself tea from the kettle. “Mom called.”
Lena immediately became wary. Whenever Igor began a sentence that way, it was usually followed by something he did not particularly like himself but had already resigned himself to accepting.
“And?”
“Well, she’s wanted to come and visit us properly for a long time. And now we have such a long holiday—almost two weeks! She thought it would be the perfect opportunity…”
Lena slowly placed her mug on the table.
“Igor, are you saying that your mother is coming to stay with us during the holiday?”
“She’s not just coming for a visit.” He was clearly trying to smile, but it was not convincing. “She’s staying for the entire holiday. From December thirty-first until January eighth. Maybe even until the ninth.”
Silence filled the room, heavy and tense like a tightly stretched string.
“Wait.” Lena slowly exhaled, feeling a wave of indignation rising inside her. “Have you already agreed to this?”
“Well… yes, basically. She was so happy, Lena. She said she hasn’t spent any real time with us in ages because all our meetings are so rushed. And she’s right—the last time she visited was in May, and she only stayed for the weekend.”
“Igor,” Lena said, feeling her cheeks grow hot, “did it never occur to you to ask for my opinion?” “Lena, she’s my mother…”
“Exactly! Your mother! But this apartment belongs to both of us, and these are our holidays!” Lena’s voice rose. “Or have you forgotten everything we planned? Skiing, Suzdal, the exhibitions?”
“We can postpone those things…”
“Postpone them?!” Lena jumped up from the table. “Igor, I’ve worked like a dog all year! For the past two months, I’ve barely had time to breathe because of that damned tender! I dreamed about this holiday. I planned everything! And now what? I’m supposed to spend two weeks listening to Galina Petrovna commenting on my cooking, my housekeeping, my job and practically every other aspect of my life?”
“You’re exaggerating…”
“I’m exaggerating?!” Lena felt as though she was about to lose control. “The last time she visited, it took her only two days to tell me that my curtains were hanging incorrectly, my soup was too salty and career women like me rarely made good wives! Two days, Igor! And now she’s staying for two weeks!”
“Mom didn’t mean it that way…”
“Yes, yes, of course. She never means anything that way!” Lena grabbed her mug and carried it to the sink. “You know what? I’ve made my decision. Your mother is coming to stay with us for the entire holiday?! Then you can keep her company—because I’m leaving!”
“Lena, what are you talking about? Where are you going?”
“To Katya’s! She invited me to celebrate New Year’s with her, but I refused because we had plans. We did, Igor! But now you and your mother have your own plans, and I have mine!”
Igor stared at her in confusion, still unable to believe that this was actually happening.
“Lena, come on. Let’s talk about this calmly…”
“Calmly?” She turned toward him. “The normal thing would have been to consult me first and only then invite someone to live in our home for two weeks! The normal thing would have been to respect my plans and my opinion! What you did was present me with a decision that had already been made!”
Lena walked out of the kitchen, leaving Igor standing in the middle of the room with a guilty expression. In the bedroom, she took out her phone and called Katya.
“Hello, my friend!” Katya’s voice was lively and cheerful. “Why are you calling so late?”
“Katya, is your invitation to celebrate New Year’s together still open?”
“Absolutely! But I thought you and Igor had plans…”
“Our plans have changed,” Lena said with a dry laugh. “His mother is coming to stay. For the entire holiday.”
“Oh, Lord,” Katya groaned. “The same woman who interrogated you about the dress you wore to your company party last time?”
“The very same. Except now she’ll have two whole weeks to criticize me.”
“Then pack your things and come stay with me! I have the perfect plan. On the thirty-first, we’ll celebrate New Year’s at home with champagne and Olivier salad prepared by yours truly. On the second, we’ll go skating in Gorky Park. On the third, we’ll visit the Planetarium—I’ve wanted to go for ages! The fourth is my birthday, remember? After that, we’ll see what happens. We’ll improvise!”
“That sounds perfect.” Lena felt some of the tension leaving her body. “I’ll come over tomorrow after work.”
When she ended the call, Igor appeared in the doorway.
“Are you serious?”
“Completely.”
“Lena, this is ridiculous! We’re a family. We should celebrate the holidays together!”
“We should,” she agreed, nodding. “But being a family means making decisions together. You made this decision alone, so now you can enjoy the consequences.”
On the evening of December thirtieth, Lena packed a bag with her belongings. Igor paced around the apartment, alternating between trying to convince her to stay and accusing her of being childish and selfish.
“My mother is trying to make an effort. She wants to spend time with us, and you’re making a big show of leaving! How do you think that looks?”
“How do you think it looks when you invite her without even asking me?” Lena calmly countered as she packed her cosmetics bag. “Igor, I don’t want a scandal. I simply want to rest. Since you can’t provide me with that opportunity, I’ll do it myself.”
“But tomorrow is New Year’s Eve!”
“I know. I’m going to celebrate it with Katya. We’ll have fun, without lectures or advice about how I’m supposed to live. By the way, give your mother my regards. You don’t have to tell her I left deliberately. Invent something about an urgent business trip or a sick friend.”
She picked up her bag and walked toward the door. At the threshold, she turned around.
“And one more thing, Igor. While I’m gone, think about who is more important to you—your wife or your mother. Because next time, I might not leave just for the holidays. I might leave permanently.”
The door closed.
Igor remained standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at the place where Lena had just been. For the first time in days, he truly understood what he had done.
Katya’s apartment was cozy. It was a small two-room apartment near Chistye Prudy, with a Christmas tree in the corner of the living room and strings of lights decorating the windows.
They welcomed the New Year with glasses of sparkling wine, laughing at silly jokes on television and planning how they would spend the following days.
“To freedom!” Katya proclaimed, raising her glass.
“To freedom—and to friends who are always there when you need them,” Lena added.
Igor kept sending her messages: first New Year’s greetings, then apologies, and finally complaints about how his mother criticized his cleaning and cooking.
Lena replied briefly and politely. She was no longer angry—she was resting.
On January second, she and Katya went ice-skating, and for the first time in many months, Lena felt genuinely carefree. On the third, they visited the Planetarium. That evening, Igor called her.
His voice sounded strangely exhausted and trapped.
“Lena, how are you?”
“Wonderful. How are you?”
There was a pause.
“Mom wants to know why I’m boiling the dumplings in the wrong pot. Apparently, there’s a special pot for cooking dumplings.”
Lena smirked.
“Really? That’s the first time I’ve heard of it.”
“She also thinks I fold the towels incorrectly. And that I wash the dishes incorrectly. Apparently, my entire lifestyle is incorrect.”
“Igor, did you call to complain, or do you have something to say?”
Another pause followed, longer this time.
“I… I’m beginning to understand how you felt. She gives me advice literally every half hour. About everything. She treats me as though I’m not a grown man but a five-year-old child.”
“Imagine that. She does exactly the same thing to me every time she visits,” Lena replied, unable to keep a trace of sarcasm out of her voice. “Except I’m not her son, so it’s even easier for her to point out all my shortcomings.”
“Lena…”
“Igor, I don’t want to argue about our relationship over the phone. We’ll see each other after the holidays.”
She ended the call and returned to the living room, where Katya was already setting the table for a celebratory dinner in honor of her birthday.
On January fourth, Katya’s birthday, several more friends joined them. They laughed, played board games, drank wine and discussed their plans for the new year.
Lena felt that this was what a real vacation was supposed to be like. It was exactly what she had dreamed of.
Her phone was constantly buzzing with messages from Igor. First, he wrote about how his mother was criticizing his friends.
“Sergey and Marina still haven’t had children. That isn’t right.”
Then he complained that she had rearranged every dish in the kitchen.
“It’s more convenient this way, sweetheart.”
After that, the messages took a new turn.
“Lena, Mom says we’re living the wrong way. She says you work too much and I don’t earn enough. She says we should start having children before it’s too late. She says your job isn’t suitable for a woman. I’ve been listening to this all day.”
“Lena, she’s unhappy because I ordered pizza for dinner. She says a normal family should eat homemade food.”
“Lena, I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t think it would be this difficult.”
Lena showed the messages to Katya, who merely shook her head.
“Men never understand until they experience it themselves. Stay strong, my friend. Let him experience the full effect.”
On the morning of January fifth, Igor called again.
“Lena, I need to tell you something.”
“I’m listening.”
“I… I lied to Mom. I told her I had been urgently called into work. I said there was some kind of emergency and I had to go in tomorrow, on January sixth.”
Lena remained silent, processing what she had heard.
“I’m sending her home this evening. I bought her a train ticket. I told her I was terribly sorry, but there was nothing I could do because of work.”
“Igor…”
“I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to call me a coward and say that I should have told her the truth. But I can’t, Lena. I physically cannot spend another three days listening to her explain how incorrectly we live, what a terrible wife you are and what a terrible son I am. I’m exhausted. After five days, I’m so exhausted that I’m ready to run away myself.”
There was such genuine weariness in his voice that Lena softened despite herself.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to come home. I want to apologize properly, not over the phone. I want us to spend the rest of the holiday the way you planned. Skiing, exhibitions, friends, Suzdal—anything you want. Just please come home.”
Lena looked out the window. Large snowflakes were falling, covering the city in a white blanket.
“All right,” she finally said. “But I’ll come tomorrow. I’m staying with Katya tonight.”
“Agreed. And Lena?”
“Yes?”
“Forgive me. Please, truly forgive me. I was a complete idiot.”
On the evening of January sixth, Lena returned home. Igor met her at the door with an enormous bouquet of roses and a guilty smile.
“Mom left at ten this morning. She was offended, of course, but I told her my boss had threatened to fire me if I didn’t go to work. She complained for a while, but she left.”
The apartment was sparkling clean. Igor had obviously spent the entire day putting everything in order.
“I made a plan for the remaining days,” he said, leading Lena into the kitchen, where a sheet of paper with a schedule was lying on the table. “On the seventh, we’ll go to the Tretyakov Gallery for the Aivazovsky exhibition. On the eighth, we’ll go skiing in Serebryany Bor, weather permitting. And I’ve taken two additional days off on the ninth and tenth, so we can go to Suzdal as we originally planned. I’ve already booked the hotel.”
Lena looked at the sheet of paper. In Igor’s neat handwriting, it listed everything she had dreamed of doing during the holiday.
She felt the last of her resentment beginning to melt away.
“Igor, did you really understand?”
He nodded.
“I did. I understand how you felt every time Mom came to visit. I understand why you were angry whenever I made decisions without asking you. And I finally understand the most important thing—you’re not simply my wife. You’re my partner. And you always consult your partner before making decisions.”
Lena embraced him.
“You know, I understood something too. If you don’t defend your boundaries, no one else will defend them for you. And sometimes you have to leave before someone will truly listen to you.”
“But you came back,” Igor said with a smile.
“I came back,” she agreed. “Because it seems you’ve finally grown up.”
On January seventh, they wandered through the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery, admiring Aivazovsky’s seascapes.
On the eighth, they skied through the snow-covered trails of Serebryany Bor, falling into the snow and laughing like children.
On the ninth, they got into their car and drove to Suzdal, where they spent two days walking along ancient streets, taking photographs beside white-stone churches and eating hot pastries in small, cozy cafés.
“These were the best holidays,” Lena said on the evening of January tenth as they drove home along the snow-covered highway.
“I agree,” Igor said, nodding. “And you know what? The next time Mom wants to visit, I’ll ask you first. We’ll decide together when to invite her and how long she should stay.”
“A weekend would be more than enough,” Lena said with a smile. “Two weeks is too long, even for the most beloved mother-in-law.”
“Even for the most beloved one,” Igor agreed, squeezing her hand.
The lights of Moscow shimmered in the distance.
The holidays were coming to an end, but Lena felt that she was returning not merely to an apartment but to a person who had finally learned to listen to her.
That was worth a great deal—more than any vacation or carefully arranged plan.
Sometimes you have to leave in order to return. And sometimes you have to stand your ground before a relationship can become stronger.
Lena understood that now.
And it seemed Igor did too.