Anna sat at her laptop, entering passport details on the travel company’s website. A five-star hotel on the seafront, right on the beach, an ultra-all-inclusive package, and a convenient morning flight with no exhausting overnight connections. She had been waiting for this vacation all year. It was supposed to be a well-earned reward after endless stress, everyday problems, car repairs, and monthly mortgage payments that constantly drained both their money and their energy.
Their joint savings account was open in another tab. Just ten minutes earlier, Anna had transferred a substantial amount from it to her personal card—the sum needed to make the final payment for the vacation package.
Igor sat across from his wife, leaning comfortably against the back of his kitchen chair and slowly finishing his favorite mint tea. A satisfied half-smile lingered on his face. In his imagination, he was already at the resort: he had unpacked his suitcase, changed into his swimming trunks, and was sitting beside the pool with a cold beer.
He had even managed to persuade Anna that this time they absolutely had to take a two-day yacht trip. According to Igor, they couldn’t spend the entire vacation lying beside the pool—they needed some memorable experiences too.
“Igor, could you please read me the series and number from Mom’s passport?” Anna asked casually, still looking at the screen as she changed the keyboard language. “You have a scan saved on your phone in the documents folder. My phone is charging in the bedroom, and I don’t feel like going to get it.”
Igor suddenly choked on his tea and began coughing loudly. All his pleasant thoughts of the resort vanished in an instant. His face now showed almost childlike bewilderment.
“What?! Your mother’s passport?” He slammed his mug onto the table, splashing the remaining tea across the light-colored surface. “Are you joking, Anya? Tell me that after a hard day at work, you’ve simply developed some strange sense of humor.”
Anna finally looked at him, completely ignoring the spilled tea.
“I’m absolutely serious. My mother’s passport. We talked about this. She has lived her entire life far from the sea and, believe it or not, she has never been there. It wouldn’t hurt her to spend at least ten days breathing proper sea air.”
“We never discussed anything of the sort!” Igor’s voice cracked with indignation. “I waited an entire year for my only vacation, and not so I could listen to your mother judge what I eat, how I sleep, and whether I’m even breathing properly around her! Cancel the third package immediately. We’re going alone. Either the two of us go, or nobody goes anywhere and we stay home!”
His insistent use of the words “the two of us” sounded especially hypocritical when one remembered how their family vacation had gone just a year earlier.
That vacation, incidentally, had been paid for from the very same joint budget.
The previous year, the couple had spent a long time saving for a trip to Cyprus. Anna had bought practically nothing for herself, even deciding to postpone purchasing a new mid-season coat until the following year. Igor, for his part, had put aside spare money from each of his bonuses.
About three weeks before their departure, Anna returned from work earlier than usual. She opened their home laptop, intending to transfer the remaining amount to the travel company, and accidentally discovered that her husband had left his email account open.
On the screen was an email confirming that a booking had been successfully completed.
Anna automatically opened the attached itinerary receipt—and felt her blood run cold.
There were three passengers.
Igor.
Anna.
And Nina Pavlovna—Igor’s mother.
At that very moment, her husband walked into the room carrying a plate of sandwiches and froze in the doorway.
It was too late to hide anything.
He had never discussed the possibility of traveling with his mother, asked Anna’s opinion, or even warned her. He had simply taken money from their joint savings and purchased three tickets.
Realizing that making excuses was pointless, Igor crossed his arms and delivered an entire speech instead of apologizing.
“Anya, my mother worked at the factory her entire life! She worked double shifts, denied herself everything, and saved on every little thing just so she could raise me and help me get on my feet. She has hardly been anywhere! To me, that is sacred, do you understand? I’m her only son, and it’s my duty to show her the world. Besides, we’re all family. We can’t live as though we’re complete strangers. You’ll finally grow closer, have proper conversations, and enjoy a vacation together. Don’t be so materialistic, and stop counting every penny when we’re talking about family. This trip will be good for everyone!”
Nina Pavlovna turned out to be an imposing woman with a loud, commanding voice and absolutely no doubt that she was always right. She did not regard the trip as a gift from her son and daughter-in-law. To her, the vacation package was more like a long-overdue reward for her many years of maternal labor.
And the “bonding” Igor had promised quickly turned into something resembling military service for Anna, with her appointed as the only person on duty.
Every morning at exactly eight o’clock, Nina Pavlovna began pounding insistently on the door of their room.
“Igor! Anna! Get up!” she commanded loudly from the hallway. “We paid all this money for the sun and the sea, and you’re planning to lie in bed!”
Half-asleep and tangled in her robe, Anna would open the door.
“Nina Pavlovna, we came here to rest. Can’t we sleep until at least nine?”
“You can catch up on sleep at home!” her mother-in-law would declare, walking into the room without an invitation. “Get ready quickly, or we’ll be late for breakfast and all the sausage will be gone! And why was the air conditioner running during the night? Are you trying to give my Igor a cold?”
The next stage of the ordeal began on the beach.
“Anya, what are you about to waste money on?” Nina Pavlovna would ask disapprovingly, grabbing her daughter-in-law by the arm.
“I want to rent two loungers and an umbrella. It’s impossible to lie on those burning-hot pebbles.”
“Only people with money to throw away would pay five euros for a plastic lounger! You have a mortgage! We’ll lie on the stones—it’s even better for your back. Spread the towels under that pine tree over there.”
Yet the constant penny-pinching was not even the worst part.
The moment forty-five-year-old Igor entered the resort hotel, the independent adult man seemed to disappear. Around his mother, he instantly turned into a helpless schoolboy.
After lunch, Igor would sprawl across the bed and begin asking plaintively:
“Anya, where’s my blue T-shirt? I told you to put it on top!”
While unpacking the beach bag, Anna would reply wearily:
“It’s in your suitcase, on the left, in a separate compartment. Open it and get it yourself.”
“I already looked! It isn’t there! You’re always hiding things somewhere!”
Nina Pavlovna would immediately rush to her son’s defense.
“Anya, is it really so difficult for you to get your husband a T-shirt? Igor is tired after the journey. By the way, where are you going dressed like that?”
“To the pool.”
Her mother-in-law would examine Anna’s two-piece swimsuit with undisguised disapproval.
“Dressed so indecently? You’re a married woman! Are you planning to walk around like that in front of strange men? I’m ashamed of you. Go and change.”
“Nina Pavlovna, it’s a perfectly ordinary swimsuit.”
Igor hardly ever intervened. He did not even look up from his phone.
“Mom, that’s enough. Anya, you’d better bring me a cocktail by the pool. With ice, and make sure it has a straw—you know my throat is sensitive. And bring the sunscreen too. You can put some on my back.”
As a result, Anna spent the entire vacation playing both an unpaid waitress and someone upon whom her mother-in-law could vent every grievance.
Anna’s own mother, Tamara Ilyinichna, was the complete opposite of Nina Pavlovna.
She was a straightforward, capable, and independent woman.
When Anna and Igor were arranging their mortgage and found themselves short of a considerable sum, Tamara Ilyinichna arrived at their home one evening and, without unnecessary conversation, placed a heavy paper envelope on the kitchen table.
“There are five hundred thousand rubles here,” she said briefly, sitting on the edge of a stool.
Igor immediately straightened his shoulders, clearly preparing to deliver a ceremonial speech of gratitude.
“Tamara Ilyinichna! We appreciate your enormous contribution to our future more than words can express. I promise we’ll draw up a formal acknowledgment of debt immediately, and then we’ll have it notarized and—”
His mother-in-law stopped him at once.
“Save the ceremonial speeches for your corporate events, Igor. This is to help the two of you get started. I don’t need any written promises, and you don’t have to thank me on your knees either. Anya, the important thing is that you make your bank payments on time.”
She never interfered in her daughter’s family life.
She did not give advice that nobody had requested. She did not peer into their pots to check whether the soup was rich enough. She did not inspect the hallway floors for cleanliness or call every evening to spend an hour discussing the neighbors and everything happening around them.
But it was precisely Tamara Ilyinichna’s somewhat cool independence that irritated Igor most.
His mother-in-law did not believe she was obligated to admire him merely because he had married her daughter. She clearly saw his laziness around the house, his desire to impress his friends, his habit of putting his own wishes first, and his reluctance to take responsibility for genuinely difficult decisions.
Igor still remembered an incident at their country house.
He had spent almost an hour pompously explaining to the hired workers how to build a gazebo properly. Igor showered them with construction terminology he had found online, even though he did not fully understand what the words meant himself.
Tamara Ilyinichna listened for a while. Then she approached, calmly pointed out serious errors in his calculations, moved her son-in-law aside, and gave the workers clear instructions herself.
Around his mother-in-law, Igor could not simply stretch out on the sofa with a can of beer and demand a full dinner consisting of several courses.
One ironic glance from Tamara Ilyinichna over the top of her glasses was enough to make him sit up straight, remember his manners, and wash his own plate after dinner.
That was why the prospect of spending a vacation with his mother-in-law genuinely made Igor nervous.
Around her, he would have to behave like an independent adult for two weeks instead of someone whom everyone else was required to fuss over constantly.
Anna did not close the laptop completely. She merely pushed it gently away from her.
“So, let me make sure I understand you correctly. Last year, when you used our joint money to pay for Nina Pavlovna’s trip without warning me, you told me that ‘we are family,’ that a mother is sacred, and that we absolutely needed to grow closer. But now that we’re talking about my mother, all of that has suddenly become a ‘ruined vacation’?”
Igor sprang to his feet.
“That’s completely different! Don’t even try to compare the two! My mother is an exceptionally tactful person. She was raised according to traditional values—she’s an intelligent, cultured woman. She didn’t bother us at all! We had a wonderful vacation in Cyprus, got along beautifully, and took walks together every evening!”
Anna raised an eyebrow sarcastically as she looked at her husband’s face, now red with indignation.
“Wonderful? Your mother made me cook sausages for you in the hotel room using the immersion heater she had brought from home, just so we wouldn’t spend extra money on lunch at a tavern. She monitored practically every step I took. And she scolded me in front of the reception desk simply because I bought a two-euro souvenir magnet with money from our shared wallet.”
Igor waved his hand dismissively.
“Stop inventing things and blowing everything out of proportion! Nothing like that happened. You always exaggerate everything!”
In his memories, unpleasant incidents seemed to cease to exist entirely.
“A vacation is supposed to be about romance!” Igor continued. “It’s a chance to relax completely and forget about every problem. We’re husband and wife—we need to spend time alone, refresh our relationship, and escape our everyday routine. Your mother constantly looks at me as if I owe her a million dollars and haven’t repaid a cent in ten years. With that expression on her face, she could destroy any romantic atmosphere from a mile away! If she wants to go to the sea, she can save up for it from her pension.”
Anna looked her husband directly in the eyes.
“We have a joint budget, Igor. We both saved for this vacation for an entire year, and exactly half of the money was earned by me. Therefore, I have just as much right to decide how my share is spent. And I have decided to take my mother to the sea. She deserves it no less than your mother did.”
“I think that we’re married and our money belongs to both of us!” Igor raised his voice. “That means decisions must be made together! Do you even understand what you’re doing? Are you saying your mother is more important to you than your own husband? Are you prepared to give up a proper vacation with your husband because of your mommy’s whim?”
Anna remained calm.
“Don’t try to manipulate me. When you secretly bought a vacation package for Nina Pavlovna, you somehow weren’t interested in knowing who mattered more to me. You didn’t remember the importance of a romantic vacation for two people either.”
Igor realized that he had run out of convincing arguments, so he resorted to an ultimatum.
“That’s enough! I said no! Either we go alone, like a normal husband and wife, and stay at a good hotel, or we don’t go anywhere at all. The money will remain in our account until another time. I’ve said everything I have to say. The matter is closed, and there’s nothing more to discuss!”
Igor turned sharply and marched heavily toward the bedroom. A moment later, the door slammed shut behind him.
Anna knew this tactic by heart. Her husband had used it for years: say the final categorical word, issue another ultimatum, and leave immediately so that his wife could no longer answer him. That was how Igor usually declared an argument over.
The following week passed in an atmosphere of cautious neutrality.
Igor behaved like a magnanimous victor who had nobly decided not to remind the defeated side of her loss. He spoke to Anna with exaggerated politeness, cleared away and washed his own dishes in the evenings, stopped leaving his socks everywhere, and even brought home her favorite éclairs twice after work.
He deliberately left his tablet on the coffee table with photographs of expensive resort hotels open on the screen. Bright swimming pools, spacious rooms, the sea, and restaurants—everything was meant to subtly remind Anna of the wonderful vacation awaiting the two of them.
Igor had no doubt that his wife had calmed down and abandoned her idea.
Anna also remained remarkably calm throughout the week. She did not argue, did not return to the subject of the trip, and generally behaved as usual.
Finally, Friday arrived.
Igor expected to enjoy a pleasant, relaxing evening. He entered the kitchen in an excellent mood, confident that the family conflict had been resolved once and for all.
Anna was sitting at the table. A thin, neat cardboard folder lay in front of her.
“Well, Anyuta, are we going to make peace?” Igor asked good-naturedly. “How long can you stay angry over something so trivial?”
He approached from behind and tried to put his arms around his wife’s shoulders with his usual proprietary gesture, but Anna calmly and firmly moved away.
“So, where are we going in the end? Have you looked at the hotels? I was thinking that perhaps we should choose another resort. It has mountains and pine trees, and the guests are more respectable.”
Anna did not answer.
She opened the folder and placed several documents in front of her husband.
With a faintly condescending smile, Igor leaned over the colorful printouts.
The first document was an electronic ticket. Beside it lay an accommodation voucher for the very same prestigious five-star beachfront hotel they had originally considered.
But only two names appeared on the guest list.
Anna.
And Tamara Ilyinichna.
“Mom and I are going,” Anna said calmly. “Next Thursday morning. I calculated everything carefully, Igor. We both contributed to the vacation savings, so I took exactly half of the money—my share. It was enough to pay for my flight and accommodation. Everything you saved during the year has been transferred to your card. You can open the app and check—the transfer should already have arrived.”
Igor continued staring at the documents.
Just a few seconds earlier, a condescending smile had lingered on his face. Now it disappeared so quickly that it was as though someone had wiped it away.
“And… whose money is your mother using?” he finally managed to ask.
Anna replied without the slightest trace of anxiety.
“Her own. She withdrew the necessary amount from her savings account. My mother has always been accustomed to relying on herself and paying her own expenses.”
Igor raised his head sharply.
“Anya, do you even understand what you’re doing?! We had an agreement! I made myself perfectly clear: we were going on vacation together! What am I supposed to do now?”
Anna folded her arms across her chest and looked calmly into her husband’s anxiously shifting eyes.
“You know, Igor, you turned out to be absolutely right. I spent the entire week thinking about what you said, and eventually I agreed with you. A vacation really should provide complete comfort and allow a person to relax properly. That’s why I realized that I had no right to make you feel nervous because of my mother’s presence. Why should you endure her looks and lose that romance you talked about so much?”
Anna paused briefly, watching Igor’s expression gradually change.
“That’s exactly why Mom and I are going together. You can use your money to choose a vacation for yourself. There will be no mother-in-law nearby and no people who irritate you. Nobody will look at you as if you owe them something. Complete peace, fresh air, and that perfect romance you wanted. Everything worked out exactly the way you asked.”
Igor opened his mouth, preparing to object.
But he had nothing to say.
Anna rose from the table and went to pack for the upcoming vacation.
For the first time in many years of marriage, she did not feel her usual guilt over the argument. Nor did she feel the familiar fear that her husband would now sulk for several days, withdraw into himself, and punish her with demonstrative silence.
Igor remained alone in the kitchen.
Only then did he finally understand that he had fallen into the very trap he had spent years creating through his own double standards.
There should be no division within a family between relatives who matter more and those who matter less. A person cannot constantly demand special treatment for his own mother, declaring that caring for her is a sacred duty, while pushing his wife’s mother aside simply because her presence forces him to control his own behavior.
Even the greatest patience eventually runs out.
And if a person is accustomed to settling family disputes with ultimatums while caring primarily about his own comfort, he should not be surprised when someone eventually applies the very same principle to him.
Except this time, everything will have been calculated in advance, down to the last penny.
Unpleasant?
Perhaps.
But situations like this have a way of bringing people back to reality very quickly.
