“That is your problem, not mine, Tamara Vasilyevna! I am not driving you anywhere. I am not your free taxi.”
“Tanechka, could you take me to Lenta tomorrow? I need to buy groceries for the week, and the bags will be heavy!” Tamara Vasilyevna entered the kitchen, where her daughter-in-law was making dinner.
“Tamara Vasilyevna, I’ll be at work all day tomorrow!” Tanya said without looking up from the food she was preparing. “I’ll be back late!”
“That’s all right, we’ll go in the evening!” her mother-in-law waved it off, sitting down at the table. “I’ll wait! By the way, you oversalted the soup yesterday. Dimochka noticed, he was just too embarrassed to tell you.”
Tanya gripped the kitchen knife tighter. In eight months of living together with her mother-in-law, she had almost grown used to the constant criticism, but that did not make it any easier. Calling Dima for help was pointless. He never interfered in conflicts between his mother and his wife, preferring to keep silent.
When Tamara Vasilyevna had suggested that the young couple live with her so they could save money for their own apartment, it had seemed like a wonderful idea. Tanya had imagined them having dinner together in the evenings, helping each other around the house, sharing news. Reality turned out to be completely different.
From the very first day, Tamara Vasilyevna turned Tanya into a housemaid. The daughter-in-law cooked, cleaned, did the laundry, ironed, and washed the dishes. At the same time, she also worked full-time at an office and gave part of her salary every month for utilities. Her mother-in-law, meanwhile, only gave orders and criticized.
“And I also need to go to the clinic on Friday!” Tamara Vasilyevna continued, flipping through the TV guide. “Will you make me an appointment?”
“You can make the appointment yourself! And I work on Friday!” Tanya put the chopped vegetables into a bowl. “I have an important presentation for clients!”
“Well, then you’ll ask to leave work. What’s so difficult about that?” Tamara Vasilyevna raised her eyebrows. “It’s not like I ask you every day!”
“Not every day, every week,” Tanya thought, but said nothing. Arguing with her mother-in-law was useless. She always found a way to put Tanya in her place and make her look guilty at the same time.
The front door slammed. Dima had come home. He entered the kitchen, kissed his mother on the cheek, and then gave his wife a quick peck in passing.
“Dima, I have news!” Tanya smiled, hoping to ease the tension at least a little. “They gave me a company car at work! Now I won’t have to waste time and money on public transport!”
“That’s great, Tanyush!” Dima was genuinely pleased. “Now we’ll have more time together!”
Tamara Vasilyevna immediately perked up.
“A car? What kind? And did they give it to you permanently?”
“For as long as I work at the company,” Tanya explained. “It’s part of the employment contract for managers at my level.”
“Well, that’s wonderful!” Tamara Vasilyevna clapped her hands. “Now we’ll be able to go to the dacha, and visit Galina Petrovna in Zelyony Bor! She’s been inviting me for ages, but we could never get there! And next week we’ll need to go to the market for seedlings! And freshen up the furniture at the dacha…”
Tanya froze, listening as her mother-in-law planned how she would use Tanya’s company car. In a matter of minutes, Tamara Vasilyevna had drawn up an entire list of errands for the coming month, and in all of them Tanya appeared as a personal chauffeur.
“Tamara Vasilyevna, it’s a work car!” Tanya said carefully. “I can’t use it for personal trips!”
“Oh, don’t talk nonsense!” her mother-in-law brushed her off. “Who’s going to find out? Everyone does it! Right, Dima?”
Dima shook his head vaguely, unwilling to get involved in the brewing conflict.
“Let’s have dinner!” he suggested, changing the subject. “I’m terribly hungry today!”
Tanya set the plates on the table, mentally preparing herself for the fact that her life was about to turn into an even worse nightmare.
She was right.
The very next day, Tamara Vasilyevna greeted her after work with the words:
“Tanya, tomorrow we’re going to the dacha! I’ve already planned everything! We’ll leave early in the morning, finish the planting before lunch, and then stop by Galina Petrovna’s for tea!”
Tanya looked at her husband, searching for support, but he ostentatiously buried himself in his phone. The confrontation was only beginning.
For the second weekend in a row, Tanya spent the day behind the wheel, driving her mother-in-law around on her errands. That Saturday, Tamara Vasilyevna decided to organize a shopping marathon for the dacha. They visited three construction hypermarkets and a garden center.
“Now we’ll stop at one more place!” Tamara Vasilyevna announced when the trunk was already packed full of purchases. “I need to buy groceries for the week!”
“Tamara Vasilyevna, I have plans with a friend in an hour!” Tanya objected wearily. “We’ve been driving around stores for six hours already!”
“Plans?” her mother-in-law raised an eyebrow ironically. “So family is no longer a priority? Dima came home from the night shift today and is resting, and you’re running off to your girlfriends?”
“I planned this meeting a week ago!” Tanya gripped the steering wheel tighter, trying to stay calm. “And it’s only for two hours!”
“Well, fine!” Tamara Vasilyevna sighed dramatically. “Drop me off at the store and go. I’ll shop while you’re gone, and then you’ll come back for me!”
“But I won’t have time!” Tanya protested.
“Then cancel your meeting!” her mother-in-law snapped. “What’s so difficult about that? It’s not like you help me every day!”
On the way home, Tanya remained silent, swallowing her hurt. That evening, when Tamara Vasilyevna went to a neighbor’s apartment to discuss TV shows, Tanya finally decided to talk to her husband.
“Dima, this can’t go on anymore!” she said, sitting down beside him on the sofa. “Your mother is using me as her personal driver!”
“Well, you have a car anyway!” Dima shrugged, not looking up from his phone. “What does it cost you to give her a ride?”
“Dima, they gave me this car for work, not so I could drive your mother around to stores!” Tanya tried to speak calmly. “Yesterday I had to leave work early to take her to the clinic! My boss was unhappy!”
“Well, Mom isn’t young anymore…” Dima finally looked up from the screen. “It’s hard for her to shake around on buses!”
“And it’s hard for me to work full-time and then play taxi driver!” Tanya could not hold back. “I already cook, clean, do laundry…”
“What did you think family life was?” Dima frowned. “We live at Mom’s for free, by the way!”
“For free?” Tanya could not believe her ears. “We pay utilities, we buy groceries, and I cook for all three of us every day!”
“Well, that’s our contribution to the household!” Dima waved it off. “We’re not renting an apartment. Just think how much we’re saving!”
“And the fact that I’ve turned into your mother’s housemaid and personal driver — that’s normal?”
“Don’t make things up!” Dima buried himself in his phone again. “Just help her. Is that so hard for you?”
That was the end of the conversation. Tanya realized she would get no support from her husband.
And a week later, the situation became even worse.
“Tanechka!” Tamara Vasilyevna called her at work in the middle of the day. “Can you pick me up from the clinic today? I made an appointment for three o’clock!”
“Tamara Vasilyevna, I have an important meeting at that time!” Tanya replied. “I can’t miss it!”
“Well, I can’t walk home!” her mother-in-law was indignant. “Calling a taxi means wasting money, and you have a car anyway!”
“I can’t cancel a work meeting!”
“You simply don’t want to help!” Tamara Vasilyevna’s voice became sharper. “And you still call yourself family! Dima is right, modern young people think only of themselves!”
Tanya squeezed the phone in her hand. So her mother-in-law had been discussing her with Dima, and her husband had once again taken his mother’s side.
That evening, a cold reception awaited her at home. Dima was demonstratively silent, while Tamara Vasilyevna kept sighing and throwing out phrases such as, “Some people don’t appreciate care,” and, “In our day, young people were more respectful toward their elders.”
On Friday, Tamara Vasilyevna delivered the decisive blow.
“Tanechka, I’ve arranged with my friends. We’re going to the dacha tomorrow! We need to plant the seedlings and prepare the beds! You’ll take us in the morning and pick us up in the evening!”
“But Dima and I were going to the movies tomorrow!” Tanya objected. “We already bought tickets!”
“You can go to the movies another time!” her mother-in-law snapped. “The seedlings need to be planted urgently while the weather allows it!”
“Let your friends come by taxi!” Tanya suggested. “I can take you there, but I’m not going to sit at the dacha all day and wait!”
“By taxi?” Tamara Vasilyevna threw up her hands. “Do you have any idea how much that would cost? You have a company car, free gas! What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that it’s my day off, and I don’t want to spend it driving back and forth! Again!”
“You are selfish, Tanechka!” Tamara Vasilyevna shook her head. “Dima, do you hear what your wife is saying?”
Dima, who had been silently listening until then, sighed.
“Tanya, let’s just help Mom. The movie really isn’t going anywhere.”
At that moment, Tanya realized her patience had snapped.
“No!” Tanya said firmly, looking straight at Dima. “We are not going to the dacha tomorrow! We have movie tickets, and we are going to the movies!”
For a moment, Tamara Vasilyevna froze in surprise, and then her face twisted with outrage.
“So that’s how you speak to me? After everything I’ve done for you?”
“And what exactly have you done for us, Tamara Vasilyevna?” Tanya rose from her chair, feeling anger boiling inside her. “Turned me into a servant? Or into your personal chauffeur?”
“Tanya, stop it!” Dima cut her off.
“No, Dima, I will not stop! This has been going on for eight months! I work full-time, cook for three people, clean the whole house, wash your clothes! And now I’m supposed to be your mother’s driver too?”
“We live in her home!” Dima reminded her, lowering his eyes. “It’s the least we can do!”
“We don’t just live here!” Tanya objected. “We pay for the apartment, we buy groceries and household supplies! And all this time I haven’t heard a single word of gratitude, only complaints!”
Tamara Vasilyevna folded her arms across her chest.
“Ingratitude — that’s what I get for my kindness! I let you into my home, helped you save money on rent, and in return I get rudeness!”
“Kindness?” Tanya smiled bitterly. “You call the chance to order me around twenty-four hours a day kindness? Forbidding me from meeting my friends? Criticizing everything I do?”
“You simply don’t know how to cook or clean!” her mother-in-law retorted. “I’m teaching you how to be a proper housewife, and you resist!”
“I never asked you to teach me!” Tanya raised her voice. “And I managed my own household perfectly well before moving in with you!”
“Dima, tell your wife to respect her elders!” Tamara Vasilyevna demanded.
Dima sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Tanya, come on, you can’t act like this! Mom really means well!”
“No, Dima, your mother wants me to be her personal maid!” Tanya shook her head. “And you prefer not to notice it!”
“I notice that you don’t want to compromise!” Dima began to grow irritated. “Mom asked us for one favor, and you’re making a scandal!”
“One?” Tanya got up from the table. “For two weeks I’ve been driving your mother all over the city, leaving work early to take her to the doctor, changing my plans because of her whims. And that’s not even counting all the housework I do!”
“Don’t exaggerate!” Dima winced. “We all contribute to the household!”
“Contribute?” Tanya looked around the kitchen. “When was the last time you washed the dishes? Or cooked dinner? Or at least made the bed?”
Dima was silent, and Tanya continued:
“I am tired of being a servant in this house! And I don’t want to be one anymore!”
“If you don’t like the rules of this house, you can leave it!” Tamara Vasilyevna said coldly, straightening to her full height. “But first you will do everything that is required of you!”
“Mom!” Dima tried to stop her, but Tanya interrupted him:
“And that is exactly what I’ll do! But first I want to say one more thing!”
“What else?” the woman asked irritably. “Instead of standing here making speeches, you’d better go get ready for tomorrow! We’ll all have plenty of work! Who else is going to help me if not you two…”
“That is your problem, not mine, Tamara Vasilyevna! I am not driving you anywhere. I am not your free taxi!”
Tamara Vasilyevna turned pale at such insolence.
“Dima, do you hear how she’s talking to me? She should respect me as your mother and the mistress of this house!”
Dima looked confused, but he still took his mother’s side.
“Tanya, apologize to Mom! That was disrespectful!”
Tanya could not believe her ears. For eight months she had endured neglect and humiliation, for eight months she had looked to her husband for support — and here was his answer.
“I will not apologize for having my own opinion and defending it,” she said quietly. “And if you can’t understand what’s happening, then we really are better off separating!”
“What are you talking about?” Dima did not understand.
“I’m talking about moving out!” Tanya headed for the door. “And filing for divorce!”
“All this because of one trip to the dacha?” Dima laughed nervously. “Are you joking?”
“No, Dima, not because of one trip! Because you never once took my side! Because I became a housemaid and a driver! And because neither you nor your mother even see a problem with that!”
“She’s hysterical, Dima!” Tamara Vasilyevna snorted. “I always said so! You need a normal, domestic wife, not this career woman!”
Tanya only shook her head and left the kitchen. In the bedroom, she took out a suitcase and began packing her things.
Tanya rented a small apartment not far from work. The move took only one day. She did not take anything except her personal belongings. She had no desire to return again and again to the house where she had felt like a prisoner for the past eight months.
The first morning in the new apartment felt almost unreal.
Silence.
No one criticized her for the way she brewed coffee. No one demanded that she immediately drive them to the store. Tanya took a deep breath and felt the tension gradually begin to leave her.
Her phone was exploding with messages from Dima, but she did not open them. Let him think she needed time. In reality, what she needed was a divorce.
At work, everyone supported her. Her boss, Maxim Vitalyevich, even offered her a day off, but Tanya refused.
“Work is what helps me hold myself together!”
Her colleagues knew about the situation with her mother-in-law. Tanya had often asked to leave work in order to drive Tamara Vasilyevna around on her endless errands. No one judged her decision to leave her husband.
A week later, Dima appeared outside her office. He waited for her by the exit, shifting from foot to foot and nervously fiddling with the keys in his pocket.
“We need to talk!” he said when Tanya came out of the building.
“We have nothing to talk about, Dima!” she replied calmly, heading toward the parking lot.
“Tanya, you can’t just throw everything away like this!” he followed after her. “We’re family!”
“Family?” Tanya stopped and looked at him. “Family is when a husband and wife support each other! And you chose your mother!”
“I didn’t choose anyone!” Dima objected. “Mom is just a little demanding. You could have met her halfway!”
“I met her halfway for eight months!” Tanya shook her head. “I cooked, cleaned, drove her all over the city! And I didn’t receive a drop of respect from either her or you!”
“Mom is older, you have to understand her…”
“Your mother is fifty-five years old, full of strength and energy!” Tanya interrupted him. “And she managed perfectly well without me before we moved in! She simply used me, and you allowed her to!”
Dima ran a hand through his hair in confusion.
“I love you, Tanya! Let’s fix everything!”
“You love me?” Tanya smiled bitterly. “Then why did you let your mother treat me like a servant? Why did you never once take my side?”
He said nothing, and Tanya continued:
“The worst thing, Dima, is that even now you don’t understand what the problem is. I’m sorry, but this conversation is over.”
She got into the car and drove away, leaving her husband standing in the parking lot.
The messages continued to come.
“Forgive me.”
“Let’s try again.”
“I love you.”
Tanya deleted them without reading. One day Tamara Vasilyevna called, but Tanya rejected the call and blocked the number.
A month later, Tanya needed to pick up the remaining documents from her mother-in-law’s apartment. She chose a time when Dima was supposed to be at work, but when she drove up to the building, she saw his car in the parking lot. Still, she decided to go in. She needed to put an end to this once and for all.
Tamara Vasilyevna opened the door. Her face had changed over the past month. New wrinkles had appeared, and her gaze had become less confident.
“Well, look who’s here!” she tried to keep her usual tone, but something in it had cracked. “Dima is home. He’ll be glad to see you!”
“I’m here for my documents,” Tanya replied shortly, walking into the apartment.
The living room was a mess — scattered things, dirty dishes on the coffee table, dust on the shelves. Dima came out of the bedroom when he heard voices. He had lost weight and looked unkempt.
“Tanya!” he rushed toward her. “You came back?”
“No, Dima!” she stepped back. “I’m here for my documents!”
“Maybe we can talk?” he looked at her pleadingly. “I understand everything now, really! Without you, everything fell apart!”
“Exactly!” Tamara Vasilyevna interrupted. “No one cooks, no one cleans! I had to hire a housekeeper, and I’m sure she steals!”
Tanya looked at her mother-in-law.
“So what you miss is not me, but free labor?”
“I didn’t say that!” Tamara Vasilyevna became flustered. “It’s just that without a woman’s hand, the house falls apart!”
“A woman’s hand?” Tanya shook her head. “And what do your hands do, Tamara Vasilyevna? Or do you think that at fifty-five, all you can do is order other people around?”
“Don’t you dare speak to my mother like that!” Dima suddenly said sharply, and Tanya understood that nothing had changed.
“You see, Dima?” she smiled calmly. “You are choosing her again. I’ll take my documents and never bother you again.”
She went into the bedroom, gathered the necessary papers, and returned to the living room.
“Goodbye,” she said, heading for the exit. “I’ll file for divorce next week.”
“Tanya, wait!” Dima rushed after her.
“No, Dima!” she stopped in the doorway. “That is your problem, not mine. And you will have to solve it yourselves.”
Tanya left the apartment, feeling it become easier to breathe with every step.
Ahead of her was a new life — without humiliation, without conflicts, without the constant feeling of guilt.
A life where she decided for herself where and when to go.
And where no one would ever call her a free taxi again.