サキは夫のミツルと子供2人と義実家の近くに住んでおり、義母は交友関係が広く、頻繁に訪れる友人からのお届け物を受け取る羽目になる。夫は簡単に渡せばいいと言うが、サキは負担と感じて我慢の限界に達する。夫は義母に会うことを面倒くさがり、サキに回されるが、夫は根本的な問題を解決しない。義両親は悪い人ではないが、ストレスを理解せず、サキは他の回避方法を考える必要があると感じる。
Continuing from last time. I (Saki) live with my husband Mitsuru, and our two elementary school children, in a house located about a 5-minute walk from my in-laws. My mother-in-law is very active and often out and about. With her wide circle of friends, she receives many gifts which become a problem when she’s away, as everyone ends up delivering them to our house. It’s tiring to handle it all, but I also don’t want to interfere with my mother-in-law’s relationships.
Receiving gifts from my mother-in-law’s acquaintances and then delivering them became too much for me to handle.
“Can’t you just accept the delivery when you’re home and deliver it when you have free time? It’s not a big deal, is it?” my husband said. His casual remark angered me even more. Some items need to be delivered urgently (like fresh flowers or meat), and with the frequency of deliveries, it’s just too much. If he’s going to say something like that, I feel like it should be his duty as her son to make the deliveries.
Handling packages for my mother-in-law and delivering them when she’s around doesn’t take much time. But the repetitive nature of this task has become a burden. My husband complains about how his conversations with his mother are lengthy, but I’m the one dealing with her now. I get frustrated with my husband for expecting me to do things he doesn’t want to do. His temporary solutions do not address the underlying issue.
My husband is always like this. He dislikes talking too much with my mother-in-law, who loves to chat. I think we shouldn’t have lived near his parents, but he felt some mysterious sense of duty as the eldest son and decided to build our house nearby.
I never imagined living near my in-laws would cause this much stress. It just goes to show that you never know until you try.
My in-laws are not bad people. If it weren’t for the frequent delivery tasks, living a 5-minute walk away would be no problem at all. Unfortunately, my husband doesn’t understand my stress and avoids his own mother. Since he’s unreliable, I need to find another way to avoid this situation… and that’s what’s troubling me.
To be continued in the next episode.
Credit: Original story by Mamasta Community, Written by Tae Watanabe, Artwork by Yoshida, Editing by Misa Ishii