The day she came, my milk hadn’t come in yet, so while I was preparing formula, my baby started crying. My mom picked him up, soothing him as she playfully scolded and kissed his cheeks and forehead.

Right at that moment, my husband walked in. He took the baby from her arms and said:

“Mom, please don’t kiss him on the face like that, it’s not sanitary. He’s still so little and can easily get sick.”

My mom didn’t say a word. She just stayed silent and stepped outside.

The next morning, after my husband had gone to work, I suddenly saw my mom with her bag packed, ready to return to the countryside.

She told me she couldn’t stay because my husband clearly looked down on her, treating her like some dirty, unhygienic villager.

I tried to explain that he’s just overly cautious about cleanliness and sometimes clumsy with his words — that he didn’t mean to insult her. But she wouldn’t listen.

I called my husband, telling him that he’d hurt my mother and that she wanted to leave. I hoped he would talk to her, apologize, and convince her to stay. Instead, he said:

“If your mom doesn’t want to stay, just let her go. If she gets so easily offended even over the baby, then I don’t think I can cater to that. Our child is still small, his immune system is weak, and older people often carry illnesses. That’s not good for him. If she really loves her grandchild, she should understand and be more careful.”

So my mom left, and I just sat there crying. She had rearranged everything back home just to come help me, only to leave after a single day — carrying with her the hurt of being told by her son-in-law that she was “unclean” and a risk to the baby.

The more I think of my mom, the more upset I feel toward my husband. He can speak to me however he wants, but when it comes to his mother-in-law, it should be different. Who wouldn’t feel offended by the words he used?

And yet he still insists he wasn’t wrong, that my mom was just being overly sensitive. Sometimes I wonder — does my husband deep down look down on my family, just because we come from the countryside?