A thrice-divorced man frequently poked fun at his fourth wife while she was on maternity leave. But one day, he landed in hot water after she met his ex-wives and returned home with an ultimatum to teach him a lesson.

“Go tell your wife…I always see her cuddling the baby, and she hasn’t cooked anything,” Steve’s mom Alice grumbled as usual.

Steve had married Margaret a year ago. It was his fourth marriage following his third divorce. And it was Margaret’s first marriage and first entry into motherhood, so she had a hard time with her baby-tending duties.

“Even robots do more work than you do!” Steve taunted her on the first week of her maternity leave. “Don’t just stand there…who will polish my shoes?”

Margaret was a consultant in a private firm. She had taken maternity leave to take care of their newborn. But to Alice and Steve, that maternity break seemed like a golden chance to make the young mother do more work…

“Margaret? Didn’t you press my suit? I told you to get it done, didn’t I?” Steve yelled from their bedroom. “Come here and do it quickly!”

“Lazy sloth! You shouldn’t have married my son if you cannot take care of him.”
Margaret was feeding her baby, but that didn’t matter to Steve. All he wanted was to get only his work done. And then Alice chimed in.

“Your wife! She thinks she’s a royal! I have never seen a lazybones like her.”

Poor Margaret put her baby in the nursery and did all the work as much as she could. Moments later, she heard her baby crying and rushed to her room.

But Alice blocked her way, showing her the shopping bag. “We are out of milk and vegetables…Go to the store now before it gets crowded.”

Margaret looked at the woman, hoping she would understand that it was time to feed the bawling baby. “I think Cody is hungry…I don’t think I’ll be able to go to the store now,” she said.

Her reply got on Alice’s nerves. But the old woman knew how to take it out on her. “I thought a walk to the store daily would help you lose all that extra weight you gained after delivery…Oh my goodness, just look at how fat you’ve become!”

Margaret turned a deaf ear to Alice’s taunts. That’s when Steve joined, adding insult to her injury.

“Yeah, mom! She looks like a bag of potatoes doing nothing in the house…Look how fat and ugly she’s become!”

Poor Margaret wanted to cry, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want them to insult her more, so she rushed to her baby. “I’m sorry…I have to go feed him,” she grinned.

To her dismay, Steve and Alice’s antics escalated with time. One day, Alice invited all her friends to a tea party. “But mom, do you think she’ll be able to cook all this?” Steve asked Alice.

“Oh, don’t you worry! Your wife cooks well, and she can do the dishes later…Go get her before the guests arrive,” Alice said.

Margaret had a slight headache that day. Baby Cody had been keeping her up almost the entire night, so she didn’t get enough sleep.

“Hey, quit sleeping during the day and help mom in the kitchen!” Steve shouted. Margaret told him she was not well, but he didn’t bother. Then Alice came in to play her part.

“What is going on? I told you, didn’t I? You married a lazy sloth that’s raising another little sloth!”

At this point, Margaret lost it.

“I took a maternity leave so my body could heal and to take care of my baby! It’s not to do housework!”

Alice and Steve were stunned, looking at Margaret’s flushed face. She was visibly angry. Alice slammed the door while Steve followed, parroting, “Mama…mama, wait….”

Just then, the guests arrived. During the party, one of Alice’s friends asked her about Margaret. “I don’t see her around…Where is she?”

Margaret could hear the women gossip and laugh about random things. Then she overheard her mother-in-law say something about her.

“Oh, you mean the lazybones in my house? God knows what attracted my son to her…she does nothing and only eats and sleeps!”

The women laughed while Margaret cried in her room.

“I was a good wife and a perfect mother…Not a lazy sloth!” Alice added, loud enough for Margaret to hear.

Several days passed, but nothing changed for Margaret. Her husband and mother-in-law constantly argued with her and made her do all the work in the house.

One day, Steve took her and their kid to the park for a walk out of the blue. Margaret went along because she wanted a break.

Just as they strolled on the footpath, Steve started to act weird. He pretended to be on a phone call and turned to random sides, trying to avoid three women with children approaching from the opposite side. But they recognized him.

“Hey, look…it’s Mama’s boy! And who is she?!” one of them mocked.

“It must be his fourth wife. Who else do you think?” said another.

Margaret was baffled. She didn’t know who these women were. Then one of them handed her a business card, asking her to call if she needed any help. “Don’t forget to call if you need us, okay?!”

Steve was embarrassed. He told Margaret that the three women were his exes and the kids with them were his children. Later that evening, Margaret called one of the exes. She was curious to know why Steve had a string of divorces.

“He and his mom think maternity leaves are meant for household work,” the ex-wife said. “I was his second wife, and I divorced him when his evil mother mocked me in front of her guests, saying I was a lazy donkey.”

Eventually, Margaret met Steve’s three ex-wives and learned they had formed a little club to discuss family issues. Soon, they advised her to take a stand for herself and divorce Steve.

Reluctant, Margaret agreed but told the women that she would still give him one chance. “If he still doesn’t side with me and remains a mama’s boy, I’ll send him the papers!” she said.

Steve and Alice were unaware of Margaret’s meeting with his exes and her plan of divorcing him if he failed her again. That evening, Alice shouted at Margaret for not cooking dinner.

“Lazy sloth! You shouldn’t have married my son if you cannot take care of him!” she fumed.

Margaret looked at Steve, waiting for his reaction. “Yeah, mom! You’re right…I shouldn’t have married this lazy sack of potatoes.”

At this point, Margaret lost it. “Oh, no! You don’t get to call me that again! Be ready to sign our divorce papers, you MAMA’S BOY!”

Margaret’s reaction shocked Alice and Steve. They thought she would never reciprocate their taunts. Soon after, the couple divorced, and Margaret moved into her new apartment with her son.

There, she established a stronger bond with Steve’s exes. The women became thick friends and often kept an eye on Steve to see if he married somebody again.

But Steve couldn’t find a suitable girl after divorcing Margaret. He yearned for family life but in vain. In the end, all he could do was just watch his children grow up from a distance.

Though he realized his mistake, the damage caused was beyond repair, and it was too late!

What can we learn from this story?

Sometimes, judgemental opinions can destroy relationships. During an altercation, Alice told Margaret that she should not have married her son if she did not know how to care for him. She often poked fun at Margaret and said she was lazy. In the end, such constant taunts prompted Margaret to divorce her husband.
Overprotection can ruin your child’s life. Alice only thought the best for her son. While there was no harm in it, her overprotective nature prompted her to find flaws in her daughter-in-law constantly. In the end, her approach ruined her son’s life.