I’m Nanami, and I live with my husband, Tatsuya, and our third-grade son, Riku. I’ve poured my heart and soul into raising him to be a respectable adult. But lately, Riku has stopped going to school… We decided to let him stay at my in-laws’ place three times a week since he asked to. However, I found out he was actually going to my sister-in-law Haruna’s house to play video games—the very thing I’d always forbidden! I felt betrayed and completely drained. Then Tatsuya suggested we spend the weekend doing whatever Riku wanted, so we all watched anime together. But even then, Riku kept checking my face, worried about my reaction. I realized he had started prioritizing my feelings over his own. When I finally asked him if there was anything he wanted to say, he told me why he couldn’t go to school—and that he wanted us to talk about the house rules together.
Neither my in-laws nor Haruna blamed me for anything. I expected them to be furious, but they actually said they were just happy to see me looking so much brighter. They are such incredibly kind people. I felt so ashamed of how I’d acted that I apologized with everything I had. Since we started listening to Riku and working together to find compromises we could all live with, the house has become surprisingly peaceful, and Riku has started heading back to school. Now, he enjoys going to school every day. Looking back, I’m truly grateful he had Haruna’s place to go to during that time. From now on, I don’t want to just force my views on him; I want our parenting to be a conversation we have as a family.