After I got pregnant, my mother-in-law came to take care of me. I went downstairs to buy a pack of salt, and when I came back I decided to send her home.

I got pregnant and my mother-in-law came to take care of me. I went downstairs to buy a pack of salt, and after I came back I decided to send her home.

The reason two generations can be divided into senior and junior with rules of etiquette is, very importantly, the difference in living habits. Our ancestors very wisely established etiquette not only to teach us to respect our elders, but also to restrain elders from meddling too much in the affairs of the younger generation. Complete indulgence will cause great chaos, while too much restraint creates trouble everywhere. Learn to be an open-minded elder and do not make things difficult for the younger generation.

My mother-in-law is a very strong-willed woman, and this has to do with her life experience. She raised my husband and my brother-in-law alone and went through a great deal of hardship. She was even able to create a business miracle while sailing against the current, which shows that my mother-in-law is a heroine. When I first married my husband, my mother-in-law did not live with us, but after I got pregnant, when my mother-in-law took the initiative to offer to come to my home to take care of me, my "hard days" officially began.

My mother-in-law always took care of me according to her own experience when she was pregnant, and she believed deeply in what other elders said. She always forced me to eat certain foods she believed were very good for pregnant women. Every day there was endless chicken soup and fish soup. At first I ate them very obediently, but after eating them continuously for a month, I would feel nauseated whenever I smelled fishiness or saw chicken. That was not even the scariest part. Occasionally, when she heard of some folk remedy that could "give birth to a boy," she would force me to keep eating it. If I wanted to switch to another one, it was only unless she heard of another "more effective" folk remedy. Especially recently, my morning sickness has become severe, and this nausea reaction from food has become even more obvious. But in the face of my strong-willed mother-in-law, all my resistance would be cleverly defused by this "heroine." My mother-in-law took care of me in every possible way. I felt sorry for her hard work and could not bear to make her sad. Caught in the contradiction between family affection and suffering, I had been struggling all along.

The day before yesterday, while she was cooking fish, she suddenly said there was no salt at home and she needed to go out to buy some. I did not want her to be too tired, so I took the initiative to go downstairs to buy salt. But after I came back, I decided to send her home. After my mother-in-law bought the salt and came home, a strong fishy smell hit me in the face. When I entered the door, she had just finished preparing a big fat fish, and she even smiled and told me that today's fish was very good and that I should drink more fish soup in a while. That sentence was like a signal, making me feel a strong urge to vomit. I ran to the bathroom and threw up. When I came out, I felt dizzy and very uncomfortable.

I simply took this opportunity to try to avoid a meal, so I told my mother-in-law that I was not feeling well and wanted to eat something light at noon. My mother-in-law did not think much about it and agreed to my request. But in my heart I knew that this pretended discomfort could not solve the problem. I could not bear to dampen my mother-in-law's enthusiasm, yet I could not endure the suffering those foods brought me. I was caught in a dilemma. I really did not know what to do to satisfy both sides. In the eyes of others I was a happy princess, and only I myself knew the bitterness within.

(From a reader submission. The images in this article are from the internet.)