The call came just as I was putting away the last boxes in my newly purchased cottage.

A small, charming one, tucked away in a quiet valley where I planned to spend my first few weeks of rest after years of working nonstop. It still smelled of new wood and fresh paint; the furniture was barely arranged. I was about to make a cup of tea when my cell phone rang.

It was my daughter-in-law, Laura.

— “Surprise! We’re arriving in two hours with twenty of my relatives. We want to spend two weeks there. Do you have rooms and some food for everyone?”

For a second I thought I’d misheard. Twenty people? Two weeks? Here?
But she spoke so happily, so confidently, that a part of me knew instantly it wasn’t a joke.

I looked around: the cottage had two small bedrooms , a living room that could barely fit the sofa and table, and a kitchen so cramped you had to take a step back to open the refrigerator door. I didn’t have enough food to last me even three days on my own. And to top it all off, the nearest town was a fifteen-minute drive away… if it wasn’t raining.

I took a deep breath. I could collapse, or I could think. I chose to think.

“Perfect, Laura,” I replied in the calmest voice I could muster. “I’ll be waiting for you here.”

After hanging up, I placed my hands on the table. I wasn’t angry; I was incredulous. But there was something else too: the opportunity to set boundaries, even if elegantly. And besides, a part of me enjoyed practical challenges.

I started taking a quick inventory:

She had yoga mats.
She had extra, freshly laundered blankets.
She had a nearly empty pantry but a car with gas.
And, most importantly, she had enough time to organize a small amount of chaos before a larger chaos arrived.

I grabbed the keys, took a notebook, and went out to the car. If they were coming in two hours, I had 120 minutes to prepare something that looked like hospitality… while subtly establishing that this wasn’t going to be a free hotel.

I started at the village supermarket. I bought the essentials: rice, pasta, bread, eggs, and fruit. Nothing fancy. Then I went to the secondhand shop where I got five cheap pillows and two sets of sheets . The rest I’d have to improvise.

Upon returning, I organized the spaces: the married couples slept in the bedrooms; the young people in the living room; the rest on mats scattered along the hallway. I prepared handwritten signs with basic rules: “Everyone washes their own plate , ” “Shower shifts , ” “Shared food, shared expenses . ”

I had just put up the last sign when I heard engines approaching. Several voices, laughter, suitcases clinking together.

The door opened and the twenty guests entered without waiting for a greeting, as if that cottage had truly been designed for them.

I smiled.

They didn’t know yet that he had a plan.

And that the next two weeks would be a lesson for everyone.

The arrival of that entire crowd was like a stampede into a cabin designed for a maximum of four people. The children ran down the hallway; two of Laura’s uncles inspected the kitchen as if they owned the place; and her mother, with a critical expression, commented aloud:

— “I thought it would be bigger.”

I simply replied,
” It’s cozy. But it will only work… if we all cooperate.”

That caught their attention. They weren’t used to me saying things like that. I’d always been the easygoing mother-in-law, the one who smiled and accepted any plan without complaint. This time, however, I had clear boundaries written on posters stuck to the wall.

Laura approached with a wink.
— “I hope you don’t mind that there are so many of us. Everyone was eager to see your new cottage.”

It wasn’t entirely true—some didn’t even know it existed—but it wasn’t worth arguing about.

I calmly showed them around, pointing out where each group would be sleeping. No one complained openly, although I did see a few surprised looks when they saw the sleeping mats in the hallway. They’d been expecting real beds, I suppose.

Then, I gathered everyone in the room.

— “Welcome. I’m glad to have you here. But please read these rules. They’re so we can all enjoy ourselves without turning my house into a battlefield.”

There was laughter, but also agreement. At least the idea wasn’t so far-fetched.

The first challenge came that very night. The kitchen, already small, became a human labyrinth. One of Laura’s cousins ​​wanted to make a complicated recipe that required half the counter, three pans, and twenty minutes of concentration. Others were trying to make sandwiches at the same time. In the end, my kitchen looked like a culinary war zone.

At nine o’clock, when we had all finally sat down, I announced casually:
” For tomorrow, I propose shifts. One group cooks, another washes, another cleans up. And each family contributes money for food. We’ll write it down.”

Silence.
An uncle cleared his throat.
— “Money? I thought this was a family visit.”

I smiled.
— “It is. And precisely because it’s a family affair, we all contribute.”

There was no opposition. Perhaps because they were already hungry and wanted to eat, perhaps because deep down they knew it was the right thing to do.

The following days were a logistical exercise. The shifts worked surprisingly well. I kept track of expenses, organized shopping, and assigned tasks. Some seemed to enjoy the novelty of communal living; others complained a little, but they did so quietly.

However, prolonged cohabitation revealed inevitable tensions.

A couple of nights I overheard quiet arguments between the couples because sleeping on mats wasn’t comfortable. The young people wanted to go exploring the mountains but didn’t want to wake up early. Laura’s mother constantly criticized the cottage’s minimalist decor.

Even so, strange as it may seem, I remained calm. Because deep down I knew that this situation, although exhausting, was putting everything in its place: they understood my limits, I understood my own resources, and a silent respect was beginning to emerge.

But the real turning point—the one that would change everything—came on a day of torrential rain. When the cottage, packed to capacity, lost power due to an unexpected outage.

And then everyone looked towards me… as if I were the only one capable of keeping the ship afloat.

I didn’t know how yet, but I had to answer.

When the light went out, there was first a second of absolute silence. Then, as expected, the murmurs began.

— “What happened?”
— “Don’t you have a generator?”
— “Mom, I can’t see anything.”

Laura looked at me as if asking for instructions. I took a deep breath, maintaining the same composure I had used since the first day.

— “Calm down. This happens often in this area when it rains heavily. I have flashlights in a closet. Give me a minute.”

I found them and started handing them out. With the dim light illuminating restless faces, the cottage seemed even smaller.

The problem wasn’t just the darkness. The refrigerator had stopped working, the hot water was gone, and the phone chargers were useless. In a group of twenty people, that was fertile ground for chaos.

But, against all odds, the opposite happened.

Laura’s uncle, Ramón, suggested improvising a cold dinner with what was left in the pantry. His wife organized an “indoor picnic,” as she called it: they spread blankets on the living room floor, lit (safe) candles, and distributed bread, cheese, fruit, and crackers. Far from being a disaster, the scene took on a warm and almost intimate atmosphere.

The children, fascinated by the darkness, invented games. One of the teenagers played guitar. The conversations, without screens in between, were more sincere than usual. In the middle of the night, Laura’s mother—who had always been critical—sat down next to me and said:

— “I admire you. If I were you, I would have fired everyone days ago.”

I laughed.
— “I would have liked to do it too, believe me. But it wouldn’t have worked.”

She sighed.
” Laura sometimes doesn’t think about what organizing something like this entails. But I see you handled everything with enviable calm.”

It was the first time I felt that my effort was truly valued.

The electricity returned at dawn, but something in the atmosphere had already changed. The people who had arrived as if the house were a different hotel from their own began to act with genuine consideration. They left the kitchen clean without me even noticing, went for walks in small groups so as not to overcrowd the living room, and a cousin even volunteered to fix a loose hinge on the patio door.

One night, a few days before her departure, Laura approached me while I was watering the plants.

— “I know it was an abuse to have so many of you come. I didn’t think about how difficult it would be for you.”

— “I know. But I also learned that if I don’t set boundaries, no one will set them for me.”

She lowered her gaze, embarrassed.
— “Thank you for not kicking us out on the first day.”

“ I was close,” I replied with a half-smile. “But I’m glad I didn’t.”

On their last day, before leaving, the whole family pitched in to make the cottage spotless. They picked up trash, cleaned windows, swept the yard, and even left a box of groceries “for when we get back,” they said.

When the cars finally drove away and silence returned to the valley, I sat on the porch, exhausted but satisfied. I had survived. More than that: I had earned respect without having to shout, and I had proven—mostly to myself—that I could handle any storm, even one made up of twenty people.

I looked at the cottage.
For the first time since I bought it, I felt it was truly my home.
My space.
And that, after that experience, no one would ever invade it again without my consent.