My life was going great until last week, when my wife and I had an argument about my elderly mum.
Wife wanted my mum to go out to work part time to contribute to the household expenses
My wife was adamant that my mum should go out and work part-time and she said that our house had no space for freeloaders.
I was enraged by what my wife said because my elderly mum had retired a few years ago, and she had no intention of going back to work. It was time for her to enjoy her lives and let her children be filial to her.
I tried to explain to my wife that my mum was too old to work, but she wouldn’t listen. She kept insisting that we could use the extra money and that my mum should be able to contribute to the household. I was stuck between them and didn’t know what to do.
My wife also told me to relay her message to my mum as soon as possible or it would not be nice if she looked for her and told her about it instead of me.
Finally after some hesitation, I decided to talk to my mum about it. I told her that my wife wanted her to go out and work part-time and that she needed to contribute to the household.
My mum was visibly upset, but she agreed to try and find a job because she did not want to cause my wife and I to quarrel.
My mum eventually found a job but as she was older, she got very exhausted after each shift
The next day, my mum went out looking for a job. But after a few days of searching, she still hadn’t found anything suitable.
Finally, after a few weeks of searching, my mum found a part-time job at a confectionery near our place doing cashiering duties and packing of bread and labelling their prices.
When my mum started her new job, she quickly realized that it was much harder than she had expected. She was exhausted after each shift, and it was getting harder and harder for her to keep up with the pace due to her age.
I could tell that she was very tired and done and I tried to talk to my wife about it but my wife would not budge and even came up with a reason saying that old people should go out to work and exercise to keep themselves active.
My heart breaks seeing my mother suffering like this but I also want to avoid quarrelling with my wife and thus I am really at a loss.
I don’t know what to do.