What advice should I give my neighbour?

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So…

Hubby and I live on a military base in Canada. The house we live in is a duplex and on the other side of us are a nice young couple who have been married for a year. He is almost 25 yrs old and she is 23 yrs old. I’m 29 and my husband is 33 yrs old. My husband and I have been married for 5 years but have been together for 12 years. Our neighbours were together for 2 years before they got married.

We’ve got to know them very well over the last year. We love them both very much and they’re like siblings to us.

When “Bob” and “Margaret” got together Bob was in the Air Force. He left his hometown and went to where Margaret was living at the time for training. They met through mutual friends. Dated immediately and were living together within 6 months. They eventually ended up here (where Bob is from originally) but it was difficult for Margaret to leave her family but she did and she found a really awesome job here. They did go back to Margaret’s hometown to get married because it was really important to her and then they came back here because this is where Bob’s posting is.

They are now having issues and because Margaret has nobody here, she comes and talks to me to get things off her chest. I told her from the get go that I adore them both and not to expect me to pick sides because I wasn’t going to do it but that if she needed an ear I would listen and everything would be kept between us and I wouldn’t say anything to Bob or my husband.

She is clearly hurting a lot and it was killing me to see her crying so much last night but I honestly don’t know what the right things to say are because I’ve never been in that kind of situation. I’m hoping someone here can offer some really good advice that I could pass along to her.

Bob has a big trust and jealousy issue. I can understand that and she was unfaithful twice while they were dating but they got thru it and he forgave her. However it continued after the marriage and still does. He has a few of his own friends here that she’ll go along with him to socialize with but he doesn’t like to go socialize with any of hers and gets mad when she goes alone. Margaret works long hours because she has been trying to get debts paid off belonging to her and some of Bob’s plus she likes be able to have her own money to do things for herself because she claims that Bob throws a fit if she asks him for some. This is one of the reasons that she took on a part time job and of course Bob was upset about it and didn’t want her to work part time.

Margaret really misses her family and friends back in her hometown. It’s really starting to show, She’s quite depressed and is on meds and sleeps a lot. When she went there on vacation and came back she was so happy for the first 2 weeks that she was home but then it’s right back to square one.

She claims that Bob is very un supportive. She apparently cries and he does nothing. She tries to talk but he gets defensive and shuts down. When she tries to do things around the house and asks him for help she has to pretty much beg. Including walking their dog. A Husky. Margaret was unsure about getting him at first because of the long hours she works but Bob persisted that he would take care of him and of course that hasn’t been happening so Margaret has been putting him in dog training as well as a doggy day care to socialize him with other dogs and get him exercise but of course Bob flipped out about her spending money on it.

So here’s the big issue. She admitted that she misses home. She’s also admitted that she is unsure if she still loves him. She’s also admitted that she doesn’t feel attracted to him but she wants to. She wants to make their marriage work but isn’t sure if it is worth it.

They are in counselling which she had to fight with him to get him to go. There were some things in there that came out that really upset her like his lying to the therapist when she’d ask him various questions and he supposedly doesn’t want a joined bank account with her because he claimed that she was a frivolous spender.

She admitted to me that she cheated on him while she was on vacation. He doesn’t know about it though.

I wasn’t shocked at all but I mean, she still broke her marriage vow.

I told her what I would do if I was in her situation but i’m not sure it helped.

What do you think? What words of wisdom should I pass along to her? What would you if you were in this situation.

Any feedback would be greatly apprechiated. God Bless.
 
So, her premise is that it’s impossible for her to find appropriate friends where you are?
There are no functions you both could attend and introduce her to the other young women?
No church functions?
No community center volunteering that could be done?
Does her view of “friendship” only apply to partying?

My advice? Do unto others. Volunteer. Give yourself a purpose. Don’t look for others to fill that void.

A busy person is a well adjusted person. She doesn’t have to be a workaholic, but people meet people by living, not feeling sorry fro themselves. 🤷

She should see her pastor about her infidelity issues.
 
Counselling. For her, if not both. Tell her it’s above your pay grade.

That said, I do listen sympathetically when people tell me everything that’s wrong with their lives, but I don’t give advice. Other than suggest counselling if they aren’t doing that already. And I tell them I’m praying for them.
 
I wouldn’t give any advice if I were in your situation. You describe a marriage that is failing spectacularly. They need serious professional counseling as well as both of them taking a serious look at themselves. The best help you can give is to tell her that these are problems too serious for friendly advice and that they need counseling. Is she Catholic? Her infidelity is grave sin and she needs confession. It is no wonder that her husband is so jealous of her and nervous about her time out with friends if he knows she has a history of sleeping around.
 
Is there a retrouvaille where you live? You could offer to sponsor them (i.e., pay for it for them). It sounds like they’re both unhappy and have to learn to communicate better.

The dog is a small example, Margaret: “Bob, I’m really struggling to take care of this dog. I think we need to either a) Pay for training or dog walking, b) come up with a more consistent schedule for who walks him when or c) Find a loving home that is better equipped to take care of an active dog.” Let him decide.

He’s right to be jealous and mistrustful - she keeps cheating on him! Still, I know those things don’t happen in a vacuum. She was happy when she returned from vacation but that could have been more about feeling wanted and loved by someone than about being near family. I do think friends are important. I think she should start going to regular counseling by herself and ask him to do couples counseling as well.
 
Both US and Canadian military hve extensive services to dealwith problems like you decribe, whether in her command or throUgh the base Chaplains office. Strongly encourage her to seek them out. The problem is really, above your paygrade.

Good luck.
 
Tell her to stay in counseling, even if Bob drops out, and then continue to be a sympathetic ear and refusing to take sides. It doesn’t sound like there is much of a marriage and it would not surprise me if it doesn’t make it.
 
Dear Margaret:

Stop cheating. Repent of your sin.
Give your husband all of your passwords and be ready to account for your time all the time. You should not expect him to trust you.
Stop kvetching about your marriage to your neighbor.
Stop self-medicating. Get what professional help you need to deal with the situation. Others have pointed out that you should have access to various supportive services.
Your husband was foolish to marry you after the cheating incidents. However, if he’s willing to stick with the marriage, you need to do so, too. You don’t get to decide if “it’s worth it” after you’ve made the for-better-or-for-worse vows.
Don’t bring children into this situation.

With sincere best wishes for you and your husband,

A stranger on the internet

P.S. You may need to rehome your dog, but this is a decision that should be reached with your husband.
 
It’s time to stop being her confidante. Don’t give her any advice, and ask her not to share any more details of her marriage with you.

She needs a professional counselor for herself and her marriage.
 
So, her premise is that it’s impossible for her to find appropriate friends where you are?
There are no functions you both could attend and introduce her to the other young women?
No church functions?
No community center volunteering that could be done?
Does her view of “friendship” only apply to partying?

My advice? Do unto others. Volunteer. Give yourself a purpose. Don’t look for others to fill that void.

A busy person is a well adjusted person. She doesn’t have to be a workaholic, but people meet people by living, not feeling sorry fro themselves. 🤷

She should see her pastor about her infidelity issues.
Thank you for your reply 🙂

She has a few friends here but her husband doesn’t like them and when she does go visit them alone he becomes very defensive.

She has started volunteering very recently at a church Nursery School. Not Catholic though which I find surprising because she had asked me a few days ago what the confession times are at the church that I go to because she had something to get off her chest and I suspect it was probably the infedelity.

I went for a drive with her a little while ago and suggested to cut back on the ammount of hours she works with hopes that I could get her out there with me to do some of the things I do but she always claims that she needs to make money. I’m not going to give up on her though. I’ll drag her along to the baby program at the library that I take my little guy to if I have to LOL!
 
I wouldn’t give any advice if I were in your situation. You describe a marriage that is failing spectacularly. They need serious professional counseling as well as both of them taking a serious look at themselves. The best help you can give is to tell her that these are problems too serious for friendly advice and that they need counseling. Is she Catholic? Her infidelity is grave sin and she needs confession. It is no wonder that her husband is so jealous of her and nervous about her time out with friends if he knows she has a history of sleeping around.
Thank you very much for your reply, and I agree. Each time she lays her feelings on me I always stress the idea of sticking to the counselling.

No she is not Catholic.
 
Is there a retrouvaille where you live? You could offer to sponsor them (i.e., pay for it for them). It sounds like they’re both unhappy and have to learn to communicate better.

The dog is a small example, Margaret: “Bob, I’m really struggling to take care of this dog. I think we need to either a) Pay for training or dog walking, b) come up with a more consistent schedule for who walks him when or c) Find a loving home that is better equipped to take care of an active dog.” Let him decide.

He’s right to be jealous and mistrustful - she keeps cheating on him! Still, I know those things don’t happen in a vacuum. She was happy when she returned from vacation but that could have been more about feeling wanted and loved by someone than about being near family. I do think friends are important. I think she should start going to regular counseling by herself and ask him to do couples counseling as well.
I couldn’t agree more!

He is absolutely right to be jealous. However he only knows about the 2 times she did while they were dating. He doesn’t know that she did while on vacation.

What is retrouvaille?
 
Tell her to stay in counseling, even if Bob drops out, and then continue to be a sympathetic ear and refusing to take sides. It doesn’t sound like there is much of a marriage and it would not surprise me if it doesn’t make it.
I tell her all of the time to stick with counselling and I intend to keep on telling her. The therapist that they see together is one of the military ones.

She also sees a Psychologist on her own.

I wouldn’t be surprised if their marriage failed either.

“Bob” has a lot of issues of his own as well.It’d be nice if he sought help on his own too. One day while he was BBQ’n he told me that his biological parents were quite young when they had him and both of them had drinking problems. He was only a yr old when they lost custody of him. They apparently starved him and left him in his crib to die while they went out drinking and he had so much bloating from all of the pop they were putting in his bottle that he had to go on a temporary slim fast diet. His grandparents got custody of him but I guess life with them wasn’t much better. As soon as he started working, he was unable to save himself any money for school or anything like that because they would take it from him and pay their mortgage.
 
It’s time to stop being her confidante. Don’t give her any advice, and ask her not to share any more details of her marriage with you.

She needs a professional counselor for herself and her marriage.
Thank you 🙂
 
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