Linda was an orphan and was raised in an orphanage. The girl got married barely eighteen years old. She did not have the slightest idea of what it means to be a wife and live in a family, because she did not even have married girlfriends. Once at her husband’s apartment, the girl greedily absorbed all the information about what an ideal spouse should be. Her main source of information was her spouse’s mother.
It is clear that Linda had heard stories about mothers-in-law’s meanness more than once, but she still thought that if she did not happen to have a mother of her own, her mother-in-law would be her mother, and she would not wish anything bad on her child. In fact, Linda was even somewhat right, because the mother-in-law did not really want anything bad for her daughter-in-law, but it turned out that way… The mother-in-law with her usual enthusiasm began to teach her the rules of family life and told her: “It was the wife’s fault for her husband’s adultery.”
Why?! Linda used to think that the one to blame was the one who decided to cheat. In fact, it was different. The wife is to blame for her husband’s infidelity for the simple reason that she probably neglected herself and stopped attracting her spouse as a woman. Mother-in-law advised her daughter-in-law even in old age to keep a wasp waist, and so Linda wrote in his notebook – “do not get fat” and joined a fitness club.
Linda was already thin and ringy, but for fear of being overweight, she started dieting. After her daughter-in-law learned her lesson, her mother-in-law uttered the new wisdom, “In a normal family, both work.”
Linda did not argue, as she had longed to do so herself. She was ready to take any job. When she asked her mother-in-law how things should work during a woman’s maternity leave, her mother-in-law told her, “Maternity leave is your problem and how you solve it depends only on you!”
Linda didn’t write this wisdom down, but when she went on maternity leave a few years after her marriage, she started a part-time babysitting job for the whole house. Linda was pleased, but her mother-in-law and spouse began to grumble that she made very little money.
The girl decided that it would not be a big problem if she used her money to pay for a trip to the hairdresser’s, but then came the next wisdom: “There is nothing to show off on your maternity leave! When you go back to work, you’ll put on makeup, but right now you have to save money!”
Linda gave all her earnings to her husband. It is clear that through all the years of married life there was a red line of wisdom from her mother-in-law: “A good wife can do the housework herself!”
As it was, Linda did everything herself. She was falling off her feet from fatigue, but she handled everything herself. Fainting became commonplace for her. Often after the last baby was taken at nine o’clock in the evening she went to clean up and cook food for the next day. At this time the spouse had already seen his tenth nap, as he was earning money and very tired.
It was quite logical that Linda went to the hospital. Linda had no time to pay attention to the occasional pain in her body, which caused her to miss the onset of a serious illness. She remained in the hospital for more than two weeks and her husband and mother-in-law did not once visit her. Linda was lucky to have her phone with her when she got to the hospital. She called her friend, who brought her everything she needed. When Linda was discharged, she immediately filed for divorce.
