Husband laid off 3 months. I pay every bill. MIL asks daily when we're 'having good news.'
Throwaway, obviously.
I'm 29. Married 3 years, love marriage. We're both in tech — he was a Senior Manager at a product company, I'm a UX lead. Combined we made around ₹52 LPA. Decent Bangalore money. We bought a 2BHK in 2024 on EMI. ₹68,000 a month. We thought we had time to figure out the rest.
In February his company did a "restructuring." 14% of headcount. He was on the list. Four months severance, then nothing. He's applied to 90+ roles. He's had 4 final-round rejections. The market is brutal — every recruiter says "we're flooded with senior PMs right now."
Three things happened that week:
1. His mother flew in from Indore "to support us."
2. Gold crossed ₹1,83,000 per 10g. 3. The 5th came and the EMI auto-debit hit.
She's been here three months now. And before anyone calls her a movie villain — she's not. She made me chai every day when I had Covid in 2021. She's a kind woman. But something has shifted, and I don't have the language for it, and I can't tell anyone in my real life, which is why I'm typing this at 1:47 AM into a website I've never posted on.
Every single morning at breakfast, in the exact same gentle tone, she asks me: "Beta, kab good news suna rahe ho?"
The first time I laughed it off. The second time I said "Mummyji, we're focused on his job search right now." The third time I said nothing. Yesterday she cooked a beautiful dinner, sat across from me, and said: "I told my sister you're putting career first. She said girls these days are too selfish."
I put my fork down. I said "Mummyji, your son lost his job. We have a ₹68,000 EMI. Why would we have a baby right now?"
She started crying.
He came out of the bedroom. She said "Beta, your wife thinks I'm interfering. Maybe I should go back." He looked at me. He didn't defend me. He didn't defend her. He just looked tired. He's been looking tired for three months.
I went into the bathroom and cried for 15 minutes with the shower running so they wouldn't hear.
Here is what I cannot say out loud:
I am the only person in this house earning a salary. I am paying the EMI on the flat his mother is living in. I am paying for the groceries she is cooking. I am paying for the petrol in the car she takes to the temple. And I am also the one being asked when I'm having a baby. I am also the one being called selfish.
And the part I am most ashamed of: I have started to resent him. The man I chose. Because he won't say one sentence to defend me. Because he thinks his mother is "just being a mother." Because he thinks my income is the family's emergency fund and her behavior is background noise I should learn to tolerate.
I cannot afford therapy right now — ₹3,000 a session, when I am tracking every rupee. I cannot tell my parents — Papa has BP issues, Mama will lose sleep. I cannot tell my friends — half of them are in some version of this and the other half will say "leave him," which is not what I want.
Last week I downloaded one of those Hinglish AI apps. Felt stupid doing it. But at 2 AM I typed all of this into it, and it asked me one question back: "Aap ye sab apne husband se keh chuki hain, ya sirf socha hai?" I haven't said any of this to him. I've only thought it.
I don't know what I'm asking for. Advice. Solidarity. Permission to feel what I'm feeling. If there's a woman reading this who's earning more than her husband, with her MIL in the house, and a husband who has gone quiet — please tell me how you're surviving. Because I have a 9 AM call in seven hours and I am barely held together with tape.