My mother-in-law recently gave our 5-year-old daughter a beautiful pink bicycle — shiny, new, with a heart-shaped basket. We were surprised, since we’d planned to get her one for her birthday. But my MIL insisted: “She deserves the best!”

Our daughter was thrilled… at first.

Soon, though, my MIL began using the gift as leverage. She visited constantly, made passive-aggressive remarks like, “Good thing I got her that bike,” and scolded our daughter for small things — like riding through puddles.

Eventually, the joy was gone. Then came the final blow: one morning, we found the bike missing. My mother-in-law had taken it back and texted, “If you can’t teach your child to take care of things, I will.”

Our daughter was heartbroken.

So I decided to teach her a lesson.

The next day, we bought our daughter a new bike. Then, I stopped by my mother-in-law’s house — with two movers. I pointed at the expensive leather couch we had given her six months earlier.

“Take it,” I told them.

She was stunned. “You can’t be serious — that’s mine!”

I looked her in the eye: “Too nice a couch to be mistreated. You don’t seem to know how to take care of it.”

She said nothing. Just stood there, pale and speechless.