A Post-80s Mother-in-Law and a Post-00s Daughter-in-Law

Tags: #Mother-in-LawAndDaughter-in-Law #GenerationalClash #MarriedFirst,LoveLater #CareerWomen #FamilyDrama #Women'sGrowth #LightComedy #Feel-GoodRevenge

At 48, on the very day I was promoted to vice president, I was “promoted” to mother-in-law. My son brought home a daughter-in-law who was an influencer born in the 2000s.

I’m Lin Jing, an ’80s-born career queen who believes, “Getting up at six is a way of respecting life.”

She’s Su Xiaoxiao, a free spirit born in the 2000s who insists, “Three in the morning is the golden hour for livestreaming and creating.”

She wants to sleep until the afternoon? I turn on the vacuum cleaner right on schedule at six.

She lives paycheck to paycheck? I add my payment reminders to her credit card account.

Think you can take me on? I was already an executive when you were still playing house in kindergarten.

I thought a mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law war was about to erupt, but then...

When the company faced a crisis, she helped me handle the online backlash.

When my ex-husband came crawling back, she tore into him on livestream until he deleted his account that very night.

The day she unexpectedly got pregnant, she cried out, “Mom.”

Later, everyone asked me, “How did you get your daughter-in-law born in the 2000s to fall so neatly in line?”

I smiled. “Get her to do what? We’re sisters in the same trench.”