When my husband and mother-in-law decided I should take unpaid leave from my actual job to manage her chaotic home renovation, they thought I’d just smile and say yes. Instead, I reminded them who they were dealing with.

Sharon, my MIL, casually dropped the “brilliant” idea over dinner: I should manage her full-blown renovation project. “It’d be more meaningful than your little marketing job,” she said. My husband Ryan agreed, claiming no one would notice if I stepped away.