Son Lives with a Woman 16 Years His Senior
Svetlana thought her son Vlada was living a typical student life, until her husband revealed that the 22-year-old shares a two-bedroom apartment with a 38-year-old woman and her two children.
Svetlana thought her son Vlada was living a typical student life, until her husband revealed that the 22-year-old shares a two-bedroom apartment with a 38-year-old woman and her two children.
When Svetlana's son left for university in the capital, she imagined he'd be living the usual student life-studying, going out, and maybe having a youthful fling or two. The truth she uncovered a few months later completely caught her off guard. Her son, a 22-year-old student nearing the end of his degree, is living with a woman 16 years his senior, who has two children almost his age, all in her two-bedroom apartment.
The story was shared with Kurir.rs by the worried mother, Svetlana, who admits that her son hasn't let himself go-he still studies diligently and fulfills his responsibilities-but her maternal concern grows by the day. She wonders whether she should step in or let life show him what's right.
"My son is 22, a student, and I found out he's living with a woman who's 38. She has two kids almost his age, and they all live in her two-bedroom apartment. He's about to finish his degree, he studies well, and I have to admit he's not slacking off. They live in another city, where he's studying, about 400 kilometers from us," Svetlana recounted.
She learned the truth from her husband, who one day said, "Svetlana, I need to tell you something, but promise you won't make a scene." Her first thought was that their son had found a girlfriend, but nothing could have prepared her for the shock when her husband added, "Vlada is living with a woman, she's a bit older than him... and she has two kids from her first marriage."
The way her husband said it made Svetlana feel he'd known for a long time, that he'd been their son's ally and confidant. It then hit her that she hadn't visited her son in a long time-he always came to them, and she simply never felt the need to go to the capital. She calculated it had been over a year since she'd last visited him.
Svetlana admits she has a strong urge to go there and shake him, to scream at the top of her lungs, "Are you out of your mind? You're wasting your youth on the wrong woman. What do you need a divorced woman with kids for?" But she hasn't been able to say any of that because her son hasn't answered her calls for days. "He knows I know, and now he won't talk to me," Svetlana says.
She's overwhelmed by a mix of emotions-shock, sadness, anger, but also helplessness. She doesn't know what hurts more: that her son is hiding something so important, or that, in her opinion, he's taken on someone else's burden too early. On the other hand, she's aware that her son is mature, hasn't fallen behind, hasn't turned to vices, and is doing what he believes is right, even if it's far from what she wanted for him.
"I don't want to lose him. I don't want to be that mother who yells, judges, and pushes him even further away. But I don't know how to let him know I love him and that I'm scared without scaring him even more," Svetlana admits. For now, she's decided to stay quiet, not call, and wait for time to show how real this love is and how fleeting. And her mother's heart, as she says, trembles in silence, praying that her son, wherever he is, doesn't forget himself.
