Living at my mother-in-law’s place, I can’t expect too much, but couldn’t she have given us the bigger room?
Like so many young couples, we faced the housing crunch after getting married. At first, we rented a flat, but after six months, we realised it was way too expensive, so we asked to move in with my husband’s parents.
Their place has two bedrooms—one’s about ten square metres, the other nineteen. We got stuck with the smaller one, the room my husband grew up in. At first, it was fine—we had a place to sleep, so no complaints.
But half the wardrobe in our room was taken up by my mother-in-law’s things. She’d pop in to grab stuff, either super early or late at night, which was a right nuisance.
When I found out I was pregnant, it hit me—there’s barely space for a cot in here, let alone a changing table or any other baby bits.
I asked my husband if he could talk to his parents about swapping rooms, but he wasn’t hopeful:
“They won’t go for it. We should just be grateful they’ve let us stay.”
So I decided to bring it up with my mother-in-law myself. Sadly, she wasn’t exactly thrilled. Her main argument?
“Where are we supposed to host guests then?”
They hardly ever have people over, but to her, it mattered. Then my father-in-law chimed in:
“I need to step out onto the balcony for a smoke. I’m not traipsing through your room every time.”
To really settle it, they went and did up their room with new furniture—making it crystal clear they weren’t budging.
Now we’re stuck—we can’t afford to rent, and a mortgage is out of the question right now. I tried explaining it’d just be temporary till we saved up for our own place, but she wouldn’t budge.
Now when she goes on about how excited she is for the baby, it all feels a bit hollow. If they really cared about their grandchild, they’d have swapped rooms instead of just saying nice things.
