Recently, my dear dad passed away, leaving mom feeling incredibly sad and lonely. To help her find some comfort and joy, I suggested she come live with us so she could be close to her grandkids.
At first, my husband flat out refused, but then he relented on one condition: my mom would have to pay us rent. I was absolutely furious. After all, we already own the house outright with no rent to pay.
With a smirk on his face, my husband said, “Your mother is a leech. Once she moves in with us, she will never leave.”
He continued, “She’ll be eating our food, using our electricity, and it just doesn’t make sense for her to take advantage of all that for free. She needs to understand that our home is not a hotel catering to her every need for nothing.”
His words made my blood boil. Both he and I have contributed to buying this house, and it’s equally ours. Asking my mom to pay us was simply unreasonable to me.
That being said, I have to admit that my husband isn’t a bad person. The root of the issue is that he and my mom have never really gotten along. Just the other night, he told me, “Your mother has disliked me from the moment we met. I can’t imagine feeling comfortable with her living under the same roof now.”
Now I’m caught in a painful dilemma between my husband and my mom, who clearly needs the support of her only daughter. What’s the right thing to do?