“Start Chopping the Salads, the Guests Will Be Here Any Minute,” My Mother-in-Law Ordered Cheerfully Without Even Saying Hello
“So you’re refusing to help your husband’s own mother?”
“No, I’m not going to help. Not only did you decide to celebrate your birthday in our apartment without asking me, but you didn’t even warn me in advance. I’m not going to change my plans simply because that’s what you want,” Lena said, folding her arms across her chest.
Lena and Kostya had been married for almost two years. They had been through quite a lot together: rented apartments on the outskirts of the city, endless overtime, and constant saving so they could finally put together enough money for a down payment.
Recently, through a fortunate turn of events, they had managed to buy a spacious apartment in a newly constructed building with panoramic views of the park. Light-colored walls, floor-to-ceiling windows, large rooms—it was everything they had dreamed of for so long.
The mortgage weighed heavily on them emotionally, of course, but neither of them complained. They both worked hard, believing that all their effort was worth it. They wanted a large family someday, several children and a spacious home. And for that dream, they needed the right apartment.
When Kostya’s mother, Tatyana Dmitrievna, learned about the purchase, she was overjoyed.
“Would you believe it? My Kostya bought such a wonderful apartment!” she proudly told her friends. “All by himself, without anyone’s help! My boy is so strong and responsible!”
Lena was mentioned only in passing.
“Well, yes, of course he has a wife there too… but that’s more of an additional detail.”
Tatyana Dmitrievna herself was a loud, energetic woman who was absolutely convinced that she was always right. She had only one way of looking at life—her own.
And in her opinion, that point of view was always the only correct one.
That morning Lena woke up a little later than usual. She had barely slept the night before because she had been sitting at her laptop working with spreadsheets.
Kostya had already left for work, and the apartment was quiet.
Lena had just taken a bite of a pastry she had bought for breakfast the day before when the doorbell rang.
It was a deliveryman carrying two enormous bags of groceries.
“But… we didn’t order anything,” Lena said uncertainly.
“I don’t know anything about that. The order has already been paid for. Is this your address?” he asked, holding out his phone with the order information.
“Yes… it is.”
“Then take it. Goodbye.”
The courier left, while Lena remained standing there, unable to understand what was going on.
She glanced inside the bags. Someone was clearly preparing to entertain guests: two packages of turkey, canned corn, red caviar, a baguette, and much more.
At that moment, her phone rang.
“Did they deliver the groceries already? Did they make it in time?” Kostya asked cheerfully.
“You ordered all this?” Lena asked, frowning.
“Yes. Mom wants to celebrate her birthday at our place this weekend. I hope you don’t mind?”
“Well… I suppose my opinion doesn’t really matter anymore, considering you’ve already ordered all the food and had it delivered to our home.”
“Sorry. I just couldn’t say no to Mom. It’s only this once. There won’t be many guests. They’ll be here tomorrow at six.”
“And I was wondering why Tatyana Dmitrievna hadn’t invited us to her birthday celebration. Turns out she had already planned everything in advance!”
“Come on, don’t get worked up! She’s my mother. Everything will be quiet and peaceful, just a family gathering. Don’t worry.”
“What time is she coming tomorrow to prepare everything?” Lena asked directly, realizing there was no way to avoid the celebration now.
“I’ll ask her today.”
“You’d better, because I’m working until lunchtime tomorrow.”
“Yes, all right. I remember,” her husband replied before hanging up.
Lena calmly put the groceries into the refrigerator, stored several other items in the cupboards, and went back to work.
She worked remotely. Her office was now located close to their new apartment, and whenever her duties could be handled from home, she preferred staying there in peace and quiet.
Still, two or three times a week, she went to the office to submit reports. Lena worked as an accountant, and her physical presence was not always required.
On Saturday, Lena got up at her usual time. She needed to finish several reports and then stop by the nearby office to hand them in.
What she had not expected was such an early visit from her mother-in-law.
It was 9:12 in the morning when the doorbell rang.
Lena pulled herself away from her laptop and opened the door.
Tatyana Dmitrievna stood on the doorstep wearing an expression as though Lena had kept her waiting outside for several hours and she had become exhausted from it.
“Quick, start chopping the salads! The guests will be here any minute,” she ordered energetically without even saying hello.
Confused, Lena stepped aside and allowed her mother-in-law inside.
The older woman immediately marched into the kitchen as though it were her own apartment and Lena were merely a guest.
“I’m actually working today,” Lena reminded her calmly, covering a yawn. “Didn’t Kostya tell you?”
“Working, she says,” Tatyana Dmitrievna scoffed as she began taking groceries out of the refrigerator. “You young people are always going on about ‘work, work, work.’ In reality, you’re just sitting around with a laptop doing nothing.”
“I’m an accountant, and I’m closing the quarter right now. That is called work… though I don’t know what you call it,” Lena emphasized before returning to the table in the bedroom.
Her mother-in-law snorted with displeasure but said nothing.
Within a few minutes, vigorous cooking activity began in the kitchen.
Lena occasionally glanced in that direction. Tatyana Dmitrievna was pulling out bowls, moving pots around, examining jars of spices, and leaving cupboard doors open and clutter behind her as though nothing were wrong.
Every five minutes, she came into Lena’s room to ask where something was kept.
Finally, Lena could no longer tolerate the constant interruptions and told her mother-in-law that she was preventing her from working.
The response was rude.
“A normal daughter-in-law would drop everything and help with the cooking. As if your stupid reports couldn’t wait.”
“No, they can’t wait, and they aren’t stupid! You know what? I think I’ll go to the office and work there instead.”
Lena immediately jumped up from her chair, opened the wardrobe, pulled out a skirt and a T-shirt, and grabbed her laptop bag.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going? What about the cooking?” Tatyana Dmitrievna exclaimed, spreading her hands in disbelief.
She had clearly hoped that Lena would eventually give in and start helping.
When Lena came out of the bathroom after changing clothes, her mother-in-law was waiting for her in the hallway.
“And where exactly are you off to?”
“To work. I already told you,” Lena replied as she found her shoes in the cabinet and began putting them on.
“So you’re refusing to help your husband’s own mother?”
“No, I’m not going to help. Not only did you decide to celebrate your birthday in our apartment without asking me, but you didn’t even warn me in advance. I’m not going to change my plans simply because that’s what you want,” Lena said, folding her arms across her chest.
“Don’t forget your place. This apartment belongs to my son… and you’re nobody here.”
“This is our shared apartment, and it is registered as jointly owned property. You might want to read a little about that instead of pointing fingers at people.”
Lena left.
Tatyana Dmitrievna remained behind, angrily squeezing a kitchen towel in her hands.
Lena returned home at exactly three in the afternoon.
Sunlight filled the apartment with a soft glow, the smell of roasted meat drifted from the kitchen, and the entire place was bustling with activity.
Tatyana Dmitrievna, wearing a gloomy expression, was mixing salad in a bowl, while Kostya rushed between the refrigerator and the cupboards, carrying out his mother’s instructions under her strict supervision.
“Oh, thank God!” he exclaimed when he saw Lena in the doorway. “I was starting to think you’d never come back!”
Lena calmly removed her shoes and placed her laptop bag in the hallway.
“No, I simply finished my work. I got everything done on time. And by the way, I told you at the beginning of the week that I would be busy today. You only told me about this birthday celebration yesterday.”
Her mother-in-law did not even turn around, but she released a loud, heavy sigh, clearly intending to demonstrate her displeasure.
Then, with exaggerated irritation, she threw the spoon she had been using to mix the salad into the sink.
“The guests will be arriving soon, and we still don’t have everything ready! You could have helped with something instead of wandering around God knows where!”
Lena calmly walked farther into the kitchen, passed Tatyana Dmitrievna, turned toward her, and replied in a restrained but confident tone.
“I wasn’t wandering around. I was working. You really wanted me to stay here and cook, Tatyana Dmitrievna, but unfortunately for you, that didn’t happen.”
“Lena…” Kostya began, clearly trying to soften the situation. “Come on, don’t talk like that. She’s my mother…”
“Exactly,” Lena interrupted. “She is your mother. And that is precisely why I respect her.”
“Respect?” Tatyana Dmitrievna flared up. “You’re ungrateful! I’m cooking for all of you, organizing celebrations so that everything can be fun and comfortable! Meanwhile, you bought yourselves a palace and sit here alone, refusing to let anyone in!”
“Well, as you may have noticed, we bought the apartment for ourselves, not for somebody else,” Lena replied calmly. “Would you show up at your friend’s apartment at nine in the morning and order her to start chopping salads?”
Silence fell over the room.
Kostya swallowed and glanced toward his mother.
Tatyana Dmitrievna turned away, pressed her lips together, and silently resumed chopping eggs.
“I don’t want us to argue,” Lena continued in a gentler voice. “I’m willing to help when I know about an event in advance and when we discuss it together. But not when I’m simply presented with a decision that has already been made. If you want to have a celebration, then let’s organize it together instead of having one person give orders.”
Tatyana Dmitrievna muttered something under her breath.
Kostya exhaled, walked over to Lena, and whispered quietly:
“Thank you for coming back. Without you here… well, you saw what it was like.”
“I just wanted people to listen to me,” Lena replied.
Without losing her composure, Lena went to the bathroom.
She understood that the best way to get rid of the remaining tension inside herself—and in the apartment—was to take a hot shower.
Under the stream of water, her thoughts gradually became quieter. Her irritation faded, and Lena felt herself returning to her usual calm state.
She changed into soft lounge pants and a T-shirt, tied her hair into a ponytail, and headed straight toward the cupboard where they kept the cleaning supplies.
While the meat finished roasting in the oven and her mother-in-law arranged the salads on serving platters, Lena quickly mopped the apartment.
She was not doing it because her mother-in-law had ordered her to.
She simply wanted the guests to arrive at a clean home—the cozy, well-kept space that belonged to her and Kostya, where she herself would feel comfortable welcoming people.
After finishing the cleaning, Lena approached the dining table and began setting it. She arranged the plates, laid out the cutlery, and placed the glasses in position.
Tatyana Dmitrievna watched her from the corner of her eye, no longer displaying the same hostility as before.
Something in the older woman appeared to have softened.
Perhaps it was Lena’s calm behavior.
Perhaps it was simply because the evening was approaching and she did not want to ruin her own birthday celebration.
By six o’clock, the doorbell began ringing.
The first guest to arrive was Tatyana Dmitrievna’s friend Galina, who brought a jar of lightly salted mackerel that she had marinated herself.
Soon afterward, Kostya’s cousin arrived carrying a present and a homemade pie she had baked the previous evening.
Little by little, the atmosphere became warmer.
Meanwhile, Kostya had gone out to pick up a bouquet—a large, delicate arrangement tied neatly with a ribbon.
He had ordered it in advance.
He returned about fifteen minutes before most of the guests were due to arrive and handed it to Tatyana Dmitrievna.
“Mom, happy birthday. We love you.”
Lena, looking slightly embarrassed, added while handing her a carefully wrapped box:
“This is from both of us. I remembered how much you liked my blender. Now you’ll have one just like it—actually, this one is even a little more powerful.”
Tatyana Dmitrievna opened the box, and her face spread into a genuine smile.
For several seconds, she remained silent, as though she needed time to process the moment.
Then she suddenly hugged her son.
After that, to Lena’s surprise, she wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter-in-law as well.
“Oh, you two…” she muttered, her eyes filling with tears. “What nonsense I was saying earlier… Forgive me, Lenochka. I won’t say another word like that. I promise!”
Lena smiled slightly.
“Thank you, Tatyana Dmitrievna. That really means a lot to us. We genuinely want you to feel comfortable here. We simply need our own space too.”
Tatyana Dmitrievna nodded.
And from that point onward, the evening unfolded exactly as it should have.
Laughter, shared memories, light wine, and homemade food did their work. The birthday celebration turned out warm, heartfelt, and touching.
Deep down, Lena felt that perhaps something important had happened that day.
Maybe they had taken the first step toward a new kind of relationship—one that was more mature and respectful.
Not simply a relationship between a daughter-in-law and a mother-in-law, but between two adult women who now shared one important goal:
the well-being of their family.