**The Bad Mother**
“You’re a rotten excuse for a mother, thats what you are!” screeched her mother-in-law down the phone. “Dumping your daughter and her baby on me like stray kittens! And you call yourself a mother…”
Claire gritted her teeth. The past week had been nothing but sleepless nights, double shifts, and the sudden weight of an expanded householdnow she had to justify herself?
“Margaret, my *baby* is a grown woman. She waved her independence like a bannerlet her enjoy it now. I gave her advice, and if she hasnt the sense to take it, let her figure things out herself.”
She hung up. There was no winning this argument. To the whole family, she was now the villain, but she had no strength left to endure their lectures.
Years ago, Claire had been left alone too. Her mother died when she was eighteen; by nineteen, her husband was gone, leaving only a baby daughter in her arms.
*”Hold on. Im here. Call if you need anything,”* Margaret had said back then.
But calls were all she ever offered.
*”Claire, love, Id help if I could, but Im exhaustedworks draining me,”* shed say whenever Claire begged her to babysit for just one afternoon.
Money? Margaret had none to spare. Neither did any other relatives. Sympathy came in words, never actions.
Claire had managed alone. Some nights, shed gnaw at life like a starving dog, howling at the moon in exhaustionbut shed done it. No one knew the weight of single motherhood like she did.
So when her daughter Lily brought home a boy at sixteen, Claire tensed. Jake had a reputationbullying girls, running with a rough crowd, and whispers said hed already dabbled in things the law forbade.
At first, Claire tried to talk sense into Lily. *There are better boys.* But Lily wouldnt hear it.
*”You dont understand! I love him!”* shed sob, even when Claire spoke calmly.
Where was this *love*? Jakes courtship was cheapplastic flowers on Valentines, the odd motorbike ride through town. One ride stretched too long, Lily ignoring Claires calls until she stumbled in past ten.
Claire, of course, had waited up. The row that followed rattled the walls.
*”Have you lost all sense? I nearly called the police! One more stunt like this, and I swear Ill have himand youcharged. Hand over your keys. Youre grounded.”*
Lily didnt even flinch.
*”You cant lock me up! Im an adultIll go where I want. Try it, and Ill report *you*.”*
Claire stared, stunned by the audacity, but held her tongue.
*”Youll be an adult at eighteen. Until then, *I* answer for you.”*
That day, Claire realised: Lily knew her rights by heart but scoffed at responsibility. She wanted freedomjust not the kind she had to earn.
*”Youre a terrible mother!”* Lily spat during another fight.
*Yes. Terrible. Good mothers dont raise daughters like you.* The thought stung. Claire had failed somewhere. But how could she have done better, working two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads?
When Lily announced her pregnancy, Claires hair greyed a little more. The girl had barely started universitythis wasnt the time.
*”Mum… Im pregnant.”*
Something inside Claire dropped like a stone down a well. She didnt scream, though she wanted to. Instead, she breathed deep, sat down, and spoke carefully.
*”What are you planning to do?”*
*”Have it, obviously. What else?”*
*”On what money? Jakes never worked a day. You wont either, once the babys here.”*
*”Hes got a jobwarehouse work, two months now. Were serious.”*
Claire saw itLily had sealed herself in a fantasy. Those rosy dreams would crumble the moment reality hit: nappies, night feeds, the relentless grind of parenthood.
*”Lily… Youve no skills, no experience, no future. Neither of yous even held a newborn. Babies cost time and moneyyouve neither.”*
Lily scowled. Claire raised a hand before the protests could start.
*”Im not your enemy. I want to help. I *know* what its like raising a child at your age.”*
*”Yeah, but you were *alone*…”*
*And you will be too,* Claire almost said, but bit it back.
That day, Lily nodded, took the money for the clinic, and Claire dared to hope shed snapped out of it.
By the fourth month, Lilys bump showed. Claires heart sanktime had run out.
*”What have you *done*?”* she gasped.
*”My life, my choice!”* Lily snapped.
*”At seventeen, its *my* responsibility too!”*
*”Ill be eighteen when its born. Not your problem,”* Lily retorted.
Claire already knew the burden would fall on her. Arguing was like stepping into a trapitd snap shut with a crack.
Jake, by then, had quit his job.
*”Too hard. Not for me,”* hed said, loafing at his parents.
Their reaction was just as cold.
*”Your mess. Sort it out yourselves,”* his mother sniffed.
And she was right.
The *problem* grew daily, yet Lily had no plan. Jake wasnt proposing, and Claire wouldnt house them. Not that *he* seemed eager to move in.
He appeared at the birth, grinned in a few photos, visited twice, then vanished. Claire bottle-fed, changed nappies, stumbled to work red-eyedbecause Lily was *tired*, or *couldnt*, or *it was too hard*.
*”Youre better at it. He cries when *I* hold him,”* shed say.
It was like reliving the pastexcept Claire knew she couldnt bear the weight twice.
She begged Lily to file for child support, but Lily refused. *Theyd work it out.*
Why bother, when Mum would fix everything?
The breaking point came when Lily left without warningjust *popped out* with a friend, leaving the baby with Claire.
*”You were home anyway. Whats the harm? Hes safe in his cot,”* she said when Claire finally reached her.
Enough. When Lily returned, Claire gave her a week to find a new place.
*”Youd throw your own grandchild onto the streets?”* Lily wailed.
*”I want peace. You said it wasnt my businessyoure right. I did all I could to spare you this. You ignored me. Now youre on your own.”*
Lily left the next day, but the storm didnt end. She spun tales to Margaret, to relatives, to friends. Most called Claire heartlessthough few offered Lily a bed.
Claire bottled it up until, a year later, she confided in her friend Sarah.
*”Harsh, love, but fair. Youve done your time. Stay silent, and shed have dumped a second, a third on you. Now? Shell sink or swim. But its *her* lifenot yours.”*
*Her life.* Those words cut deeper than any accusation. Once, Lilys *”Its my life!”* had wounded her. Now, they brought relief.
Claire knew nowshe couldnt live it for her. Maybe Lily would grow up, maybe not. But everyone must bear their own choices, not pile them onto someone elses shoulders.
