Nothing prepares you for the shock of seeing an invoice where a heartfelt note should be. There it sat on our kitchen table – a demand for $600 from my mother-in-law Barbara for watching our golden retriever while I was in labor.
My husband Tom looked ready to explode. “I can’t believe she’d do this,” he kept repeating as we settled our newborn into his bassinet.
I believed it. Barbara had always kept score in her own peculiar way. But this time, she’d gone too far.
At her first visit to meet her grandson, Barbara barely glanced at the baby before asking about her money. That’s when I presented my counteroffer – a three-page spreadsheet documenting every financial favor we’d extended over the past five years.
“You want to treat family like a business?” I asked. “Then let’s settle all our accounts.”
The color drained from her face as she realized her miscalculation. Without another word about payment, she kissed her grandson goodbye and left. Our dog Rich wagged his tail as the door closed behind her – the only family member who never kept score.
