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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

How do i choose between my husband and my family?

20 replies

StarSraah · 16/12/2019 10:10

I have a long running history of drama with my mother and sister. For years they have ganged up on me and betlitted me. On the flips side they have shown a lot of love and support through difficult times so its not all bad.
The other night we got into a huge fight and they are no longer talking to me. My husband says i should not give in and apologies as i was in the right! But there is a very big problem with this:

  1. My sister lives in America and has only just arrived for three weeks with her kids who i love
  2. My father is dying and this will be his last xmas.
My father's wife has called me and begged me to reconcile with my sister and mum so we can enjoy my dads last xmas. My husband says if i give in i will be condoning their behaviour once again and he cannot take it anymore and live like this. If i choose to give in and say sorry, it is going to cause huge issues between my husband and i (who in his defence has had to watch my family upset me too many times). But then i dont want to destroy my dads last xmas who has nothing to do with this argument. I hold my hands up - i started the fight the other night but its cause i could not take it anymore. What do i do?
OP posts:
Branleuse · 16/12/2019 10:14

Well its not really up to your husband. Tell him that you are willing to go low contact after xmas maybe but to go no contact at all is a fairly big step that needs to be your decision, not his.
Nobody else gets to insist that you disown your own family.

Finfintytint · 16/12/2019 10:16

I’d apologise. Get through Christmas and not engage with her for a while.
Sorry about your dad.

snowybaubles · 16/12/2019 10:17

You can be there for your father without reconciliation. There are other times around the Christmas period you can do Christmas with your dad and his wife. That way he gets more than one last Christmas and you don't present a false situation to him.

I tend to agree with your husband - I have a similar situation with a sibling always trying to get my to reconcile with my DM. It's not something I want but it can be draining being encouraged and I need DH to keep me grounded sometimes.

CanIHaveADrink · 16/12/2019 10:20

I would try my best to spend that Christmas with your dad.
if your dad is remarried, then I assume that him and your mum are separated. In which case, why is the fact you are not in talking terms with your mum has an impact on Christmas with him? Do you still spend Christmas altogether? Is there not a way to see your dad, have a nice time with him wo involving your mum and your dsis?

FWIW, thé responsibility of your dad having his last Christmas with you is also very squarely k their shoulders!! Don’t take all the blame an try to make everything better for everyone as if you were the one at fault!

RantyAnty · 16/12/2019 10:22

What was the fight about?

Did his wife also tell them to make up with you?

katewhinesalot · 16/12/2019 10:24

All your dh to understand that this is about your dad at the moment. Everything else needs to be put on hold and dealt with after Xmas. In the meantime you do what is needed to calm things for your dad. Including apologising if that is what it takes.

Musti · 16/12/2019 10:25

If your parents aren't together then I don't think it's so important. He may already be aware of the way they are. I'd just talk to him and spend time with him when you can and not apologise to your mum and sister. There will always be a reason and that's probably what your husband is worried about.

TheReef · 16/12/2019 10:26

Why not just meet up with your Dsd for pre Christmas drinks and a meal. Tbh I'd go nc with Mum and Sister

StarSraah · 16/12/2019 10:41

Thanks guys. My mum does not spend xmas with us but my sister does so its about making amends with her for my dads sake! We have always been a close family and i have sucked up my mum and sister bullying behaviour towards me for an easy life. The other night i snapped as they were once again making out any show of emotion i make is unjustified. The flight though is a deep rooted issue rather than what was said on saturday. I tried to explain this but they still dont understand. They cannot see they have ever done anything wrong

OP posts:
StarSraah · 16/12/2019 12:46

UPDATE: my husband has said to do what ever i think is best but he will no longer have anything to do with my family and will not spend xmas with us. I have to be with my dad but then im not with my husband!

OP posts:
Aussiebean · 16/12/2019 13:03

I think you can come up with a plan of attack. Your sister is only here for 3 weeks and you Only have to see her on Christmas Day?

You can grey rock your mum and sister until after Christmas. Keep it light/ pleasant but don’t give anything of yourself. Just ask her about herself and keep her talking about her interests without going in any detail about you.

Once she is gone and Christmas is out of the way, plan how you will go LC for the foreseeable with the option of NC on the table.

As for your dh. I get why he wants out. He will probably say something he will regret and doesn’t want to do that to you. Talk with him about your plans and strategies without putting pressure on him to change his mind.

You might be able to only spend part of the day with your father so you can have sometime with your dh as well

AttilaTheMeerkat · 16/12/2019 13:16

What snowybaubles wrote.

What do YOU want to do for Christmas?. Forget your mother, sister, dad, your H and his wife in all this for one second, what do you actually want to do?.

Where are your boundaries at here with regards to all these people?. They seem so low as to be almost non existent particularly when it comes to your family like your dad, mother and sister. If you want to see your dad then make arrangements to see him particularly if he is in the same area as you. Do not apologise to your mother and sister on his new wife's behalf. What have you got to apologise for, you remain their whipping boy here. These two as well have never apologised nor have accepted any responsibility for their actions either have they?.

Its really of no surprise now your DH has decided to have no further contact with them. He has had more than enough of them treating you so abusively here and he is well within his rights to walk away. Ultimately you will need to have no contact at all with your mother and sister.

re your comment:-
"My mum does not spend xmas with us but my sister does so its about making amends with her for my dads sake! We have always been a close family and i have sucked up my mum and sister bullying behaviour towards me for an easy life."

Being an appeaser does not work as you have sadly found out. It just makes them worse and they know you are weak so go in more for the kill. I also feel you've been trained from early childhood to put your mother and in turn sister first, with you and your needs dead last. No wonder they've walked all over you, they did this to you and sadly you were conditioned also into accepting this role.

The close family image that you adopted for your own self was and remains a myth. You are also enveloped still in fear, obligation and guilt and these along with your own inertia re your family of origin keeps you enmeshed within it.

People from emotionally unhealthy and otherwise dysfunctional families end up playing roles and your role here assigned is scapegoat. Your sister is your mother's carbon copy and remains favoured (as do her children, your kids will also be scapegoated by them). You are very much the scapegoat and besides which your father failed you here when he was with your mother by failing to protect you from his wife's excesses of behaviour. He acted out of self preservation and want of a quiet life and threw you and in turn your sister under the bus.

Your dad's new wife here is the flying monkey and she is acting in her best interests here rather than yours. She is also manipulative by using your dad's ill health in such a manner i.e. to tow the party line. She had no right to say what she did to you re your mother and sister and therefore her opinion should be ignored.

Do read "Toxic Parents" by Susan Forward as a starting point and have a look also at the current November "well we took you to Stately Homes" thread on these pages.

CanIHaveADrink · 16/12/2019 13:34

@StarSraah, so not ony your mum and sister are bullying you into doing one thing but your dh is doing the same?? Because I cant say he is being that supportive tbh :(

Can I ask what do YOU want? What is really important to you that you know if you dont it, it will stop sleeping at night?
If you were to stay at home with your H, would you be able to forgive yourself that you werent there for his last christmas?
Do you have dcs, could you send christmas day with your dad and your dc (and your dh can go to his parents?) or spend a nice day with your dad the day before or the day after?

I agree with a pp that people around you are so used to you having poor boundaries and agreeing to anthing that they are all pushing to get whatever they want wo a thought for you. That includes your dh.
This time, I think you need to do whatever is working FOR YOU. Whatever is going to give nice warm memories of that last christmas with your dad. Whatever is going to make that moment a memorable time for all the RIGHT reasons.

AgentJohnson · 17/12/2019 06:27

Do what you need to do but accept that it isn’t fair on your H to watch your family continually hurt you and to keep expecting him to smile and nod.

Your H isn’t a mute shoulder to cry on. He has feelings and opinions too and you aren’t the only one who’s paid the price of your decision not to deal with the bullying.

I’m sorry that it’s come to this but no one is forcing you to be in the middle, it is a choice and one that you need to own.

Loopytiles · 17/12/2019 06:45

If your H is generally decent (?) then he wouldn’t have said this if he wasn’t very fed up indeed. It’s for you to decide how to handle your whole family, but must be frustrating for him to see you treated like this and continuing to appease.

If you don’t have DC then spending this xmas apart is sad but could be a reasonable short term solution. If you have DC that’s trickier.

You could seek to smooth things over with your sister without apologising since you don’t feel this is justified, and visiting your dad as you were planning to do, whether or not she’s happy about that.

It sounds like your father enables / takes sides with your sister. His partner is just a “flying monkey”.

Suggest reading the books/online info on the Stately Homes threads.

Interestedwoman · 17/12/2019 09:12

'My father's wife has called me and begged me to reconcile with my sister and mum so we can enjoy my dads last xmas. My husband says if i give in i will be condoning their behaviour once again and he cannot take it anymore and live like this.'

our husband is being very unreasonable. I know he's seen it many times, but he needs to let it slide without a confrontation (though you can inwardly keep it in the 'tally' of when they've been awful if you feel you can't actually forget.)

It's your dad's last xmas and your husband needs to focus on and respect that. You have to go IMO. All you can do is try and win your husband round to let it slide just this once and come along. It's nasty of him to effectively put you in a position where you have to choose.

HisBetterHalf · 17/12/2019 09:28

could you not spend boxing day with your dad instead

NewBlueGoo · 17/12/2019 09:36

I have been in a similar situation, OP - my husband said he couldn’t stand watching my family walk all over me anymore, and if I kept letting it happen he wasn’t sure he could continue in our relationship. I thought it was an awful thing for him to say at the time, and I felt hugely unsupported. But I realised that without realising it I was putting pressure on him to let them walk all over him, too. My DH was showing me how you set boundaries, which I had never learned to do. He was telling me what he could and couldn’t put up with in terms of intrusive and aggressive and manipulative behaviour from my family. He had a right to choose not to be around them, and not to be pressed into the role of bystander while they were awful to me.

I have gone no contact with my family since, and it has been incredible how much easier life is, and how much less guilt and dread I feel on a daily basis.

I am sorry about your father.

TeacupDrama · 17/12/2019 09:37

if this truly is your Father's last Christmas ( I say this not to be mean but some families talk about X's last Christmas for years and years) then I think you need to explain to your husband that you are going to suck up your sisters nastiness twice more once at Christmas and again at your Father's funeral then you will go very low or no contact with them
the alternative is to explain to your DF directly not your step mum what the problem is and that neither you or DH can handle being the scapegoat / whipping boy anymore you can't endure pain to make others happy because no nice person is made happy bt seeing other people being hurt

selmabear · 17/12/2019 10:32

I think your DH is being a bit unreasonable knowing the situation with your father but at the end of day you cant force him to attend Christmas dinner with your family. I suggest you go low contact after Christmas, sounds like you'd be better off not having to deal with so much stress from your mother and sister.

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