A friend of my wife’s invited us to a wedding anniversary, and I asked my mother to babysit my three-year-old son. She agreed. We were glad to have solved the problem so quickly.
We were invited to the restaurant for two in the afternoon. We had already started to pack when my mother called to say that she had a bad toothache and had already made an appointment with the doctor. I realized how my wife, who already disliked my mother, would react to this, so I started to ask my mother to wait until tomorrow. I could then take her to the dentist. But she said she couldn’t be patient and would go now. I never understood how she could get to the doctor on a Sunday!
I retold the conversation to my wife and suggested she go herself. She refused, sulked all evening, did not speak, crying. As if I was to blame. The evening was ruined, but not completely, because my mother came without a call. Said she had made it to the dentist and could stay with her grandson. My wife would not even talk to her, went to his room, and I said that we were already late, and there was no point in going. But my mother insisted, resenting the fact that she had come no matter what, and we were acting like resentful schoolchildren. Then my wife came out and said: “you made up a toothache to spite me!”
The mother left in tears after a few more hurtful remarks from the wife. I tried to stop the fight, but I can’t take sides, can I? Now I am the enemy to both of them. My wife is angry that I didn’t support her, and my mother is angry that I didn’t protect her.
