My MIL kept licking the serving spoon and putting it back in our food
“Can’t we try it with some proper rules?”
“Then why didn’t you ask me before that happened?”
Diane stood.
“Don’t talk as though I forced my way in. He asked me to stay.”
“I believe you,” I said. “But he couldn’t agree for both of us.”
She turned to him, waiting for him to contradict me.
He rubbed his forehead.
“I believe you,”
“Could you give us more time?”
“Until when?”
He didn’t answer.
I had been relying on the six-week date every time I swallowed an objection.
Without it, I could picture myself still guarding the kitchen months from now, being told we would talk when things settled down.
“Until when?”
“I’ll honor the six weeks,” I said. “I need us to arrange what happens after that.”
Diane’s voice sharpened.
“I watch Noah twice a week. Does that count for nothing?”
I remembered the cushions across the living room and Noah laughing against her shoulder.
“It counts. I appreciate it.”
“Then perhaps you should think about what you’re giving up.”
“I’ll honor the six weeks,”
“I can appreciate it without agreeing to live together permanently.”
“Fine. I won’t babysit anymore.”
My next shift was Tuesday. I had another on Thursday, both from noon until six.
I reached for my phone, already thinking about whom I could call.
Mark said, “Could you move your hours for a little while?”
I stopped with the screen still dark.
“Fine. I won’t babysit anymore.”
He’d made a promise. Diane had withdrawn her help.
And somehow the first solution was for me to change my work.
“What can you change?”
He looked surprised. “I work those hours too.”
“I know. That’s why we need to work it out together.”
He’d made a promise.
He sat silently for a moment.
“Okay. I’ll ask about an early shift.”
It wasn’t a plan yet, but I put my phone on the table rather than begin calling my manager.
Diane left the kitchen. Her chair remained pushed back beside the untouched tray.
Once we were alone, I asked Mark about enlisting Noah for his breakfast stunt.
It wasn’t a plan yet
“He helped me with the toast,” he said. “I did the rest. Nobody was going to eat it.”
“Please don’t involve him in getting back at your mother. He’s four.”
“I shouldn’t have.”
He carried the tray to the bin.
I watched him scrape the food away. I’d wanted him to back a simple request. Now I had to find out whether he could accept a decision he didn’t like.
“I did the rest.”
***
That evening, I opened the website of a daycare two streets from us. I’d toured it before Diane’s visit, but hadn’t enrolled Noah.
There was an inquiry form.
I filled in Tuesday and Thursday, noon to six, then stopped at the fee.
Diane hadn’t charged us. This would come out of our savings.
There was an inquiry form.
From the living room, I heard Noah asking Grandma to do the walrus voice.
She obliged, and he laughed.
I could close the website. Ask for another month. Give Mark more time.
But what would change during that month?
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