Extended family issues

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As_for_my_House

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Whenever we are trying to decide who to invite out with us for a night out my husband always pushes his sister and her husband. i have told him that we have tried that and that I am not interested in having a couple friendship with his sister. I am ok with family events but the couple to couple interaction doesn’t work.

The one problem is that the sister is very negative around me. She contradicts and tries to correct me. She questions anything I say that I would like to do, like paint my kitchen cabinets. Why would you go and do that? she says. I am a very good decorator in my opinion and most people love my decorating. She on the other hand has no taste, not being critical i’st just a fact and not one that I would ever express to her. She tries to act morally superior, using relativism at her guide. She discounts my moral values as old fashioned or too religious. She is no friend to my marriage because she is always trying to pull my husband aside so that she can privately influence him telling him what he should and should not do. I do not like the way my husband acts around her. I do not like that she tries to exclude me from conversations. My husband goes along with her dominating conversation and becomes completely agreeable to all of her ideas even when they are against our family values and the teachings of our catholic faith. She is the one who brings up these touchy subjects like abortion, homosexual marriage etc. It upsets me to hear my husband making compromises about these pro-abortion, divorce, and homosexual agendas.

She is married to a man who left his wife . She doesn’t like his daughters so the husband visits them separately.I like his daughters and I think they got the shaft when she came into their lives. SILs family claim to be Jewish but I think they are secular. She talks about their homosexual rabbi, how he is now allowed to marry his lover and that they think he is a wonderful moral guide. Again the pushing of their liberal agenda on the naive catholic relatives who don’t know any better. We are now allowed to disagree with her opinions. She has allowed her son to smoke pot and drink alcohol and have a live in girlfriend who sleeps in his room, this started when he was 15 and I witnessed all of this first hand. She has recently had to put her son, now 23 in a drug rehab and it’s a big family secret that my husband and I are not suppose to know about but the gossip got out as it always does. Now my husband is trying to pretend that her son is in Florida living and working now because he rewrites things in his head to make my SIL look like she has the prefect life. He makes excuses for her and actually lies to himself about the things she says and does. This is a big red flag for me that tells me that my husband can not separate fact from fiction in the dysfunctional life that his sister creates.

This is a small snapshot of my 30+ years with my husband’s family. I have tried many things over the years and the results have been poor. My main concern is not the development of a friendship with SIL but to get my husband to see the reality of the dysfunction in his relationship with his sister so that we can set healthy boundaries.
My husband needs to make new friends he says he doesn’t have time to make friends but complains that we always go out with my friends(they are our friends). This is when he says (and he does this every time) why don’t we invite his sister out socially.

I have sons grown too. And have been made a bad guy over the years for not inviting them to my home regularly. One of the last time SIL was here, left her under age son to stay at my house with my boys then 25, 27 and beer was being served and my sons told me he was drinking but that they would drive him home. Now I being the owner of the house could have been arrested for this so I never invited them again. My husband says he probably wasn’t drinking, again this is a lie that my husband made up in his head.

I could go on but this give you a pretty good picture, please understand I am not here to bash her but to explain why I find her a treat to my own family and marriage.

I personally want to stick to my guns about SIL. I cant see where my husband can ever make good judgment about his sister, her influence and boundaries have not been possible to set because my husband won’t back them.

I
 
I am sorry that you are going through this, thank you for sharing.

Your problem is not your sister-in-law your problem is your marriage, but you already knew that. My suggestion is to approach this from the perspective of supporting your husband and trying to help ***build him up ***as a husband and father. Tell your husband that you love him, often. Tell your husband that you trust him and think he is a good man. Your husband is extremely weak when it comes to his sister, he is in the decades-long habit of letting a bossy woman dominate him, clearly your husband needs help with confidence.

When you refuse to go to dinner with his sister, do it with love. Tell your husband you would rather spend time with him alone. Make his favorite dinner, watch his favorite movie and be an affectionate wife! It is your husband’s job to be your protector but he might not have enough confidence to do that right now. Build him up, find ways to make him feel like a man! It is through love and strength that you might be able to weather this storm. Telling your husband you don’t like his sister is useless, because he already knows that and is completely passive. You have much power in prayer too as does a spouse in a sacramental marriage, pray for your husband often. Hope this helps, please be assured of my prayers. God bless.
Thank you Monicad. This is very good advice and I will follow through. I can see that I should build him up more and I know that i can increase my support and decrease my criticisms.
 
Yes, this has everything to do with your relationship with your husband and little to do with his sister. You seem to have spent decades trying to change him.

Stop judging her, avoid criticizing her. Let your husband have some time with her, she is his sister. It doesn’t have to include you.
 
Yes, this has everything to do with your relationship with your husband and little to do with his sister. You seem to have spent decades trying to change him.

Stop judging her, avoid criticizing her. Let your husband have some time with her, she is his sister. It doesn’t have to include you.
Yes.

You can’t change your SIL, and you can’t change your husband. You can, however, change your response to them.

If your husband wants to see her, don’t argue with him. You don’t have to go. When he comes back, be nice about her. Ask how she is, how her family are and what they did. If he mentions something she said that goes against the Catholic faith, ask him what he thinks about it.

Remember to build him up, so he becomes more confident in his own opinions, and why he holds those opinions.

Lou
 
After 30 years of marriage you should be able to tell your huisband that his sister is annoyIng to the point of making you feel bad about yourself and you prefer to see her on limited occaisions.

No one should have to put up with this negativity. Tell him next time-- If she starts-you will ask her what the heck is her problem? You know we are devout Catholics-pro lifeb¥believe,In the sacrament of marriage and are trying to live a pure and holy life. Btw- your opinion about my cabinets appreciated but — are you freakin blind? Sheesh…a homosexual rabbi? Yikes. A pot smokin child --eek. What other pearls of wisdom does your sil posses?
I would ask her

(Gosh this is why I am in confession so much, so eliminate the last sentances)

Seriously… Stand up to her in a kind way. But still, if someone can be direct in opposition of your values, you can be direct back in defending them.
 
I have an update! Just as I was about to post, my SIL called. She wanted to let husband know about MILs phone being out.

We got into a conversation and had a talk about a lot of what has been on my mind. She tried to change the subject. She tried to discount my feelings, she tried to push her own agenda but i kept it up countering all her requests with my view of the situation.

I don’t know if I got through to her but I certainly didn’t back down.She expressed her need for family harmony and I told her that if that was going to happen that we must respect our differences and that maybe certain things have to stay off limits when we come together.
I told her that my husband and I are on the same page about these issues but that he has to speak up when our bounderies are being crossed. i told her that we are working on this but that I felt that it was a big part of the problem.

She told me that other the SIL sees her roll in my husbands life are a parent because she is older and it has always been that way. I told her that she is not his mother and that we are all adults now and that I don’t appreciate being talked down to so that has to change. She tried the poor health card for her sister and I told her that poor health is no excuse for verbal and physical aggression. I told her that other SIL is allowed to call but that she must be polite to me when I answer the phone.

I think that I caught SIL off guard because I was prepared this time usually I am not. She tried but I countered every time, she sounded befuddled by the end of the conversion.
She usually tries to discount my opinions and make me feel wrong but this time I stood up to her. Good for me! I was honest, and forward and I did not discount her feelings but I did stick to my opposite opinions about several situations we discussed.

I don’t know if it was your prayers or if the Holy Spirit just got tried of me whining but I do feel this was Divine intervention.

I do think I made some headway with SIL for future relations.

Thank you for all. Thank you Holy Spirit for guiding this fallen human and giving me courage to speak up.
 
I am very happy for you that you were able to clear the air with your sil!

Yes, the Holy Spirit is awesome in circumstances like this. I experienced something similar today myself.
 
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