Art Asked:

“my wife hates her new daughter in law and her family. my wife thinks her sons wife is just a user and want him to work while she stays at home. my wifes son moved to iowa and her family lives about 4 hours away from them so they spend all the holidays and visit her family atleast once a month but my wife only gets to see her son about once a year if they come visit. before he got married my wife and her son did everything together and after he moved (for a job) he called her everyday but that has stopped since he got married and when my wife calls her son all he talks about is his wife and now shes going to have a baby and my wife is very upset because she never gets any time with just her son and she will be luck if she gets to see her soon to be grandchild once a year and she knows that the other grandparents will get to see the grandchild atleast once a month and plan on selling their house so they can move in with their daughter and son in law. last week my wife told her son she never wants to see or speak to him again that she no longer knows who her son is etc. my wife is depressed and very sad cuz she loves her son she just hates his wife and his inlaws cuz they are a big part of her sons family and we have very little contact with them. Every time my wife would see her daughter in law post somthing on facebook it would just make her mad so she has since deleted them from her facebook account. I tried to explain to my wife that her son is now married and needs to live his life with his new wife and if he wants to let her stay home while he works that is his choice and it’s none of our business. it’s been a week since she told her son not to speak to her ever again and i don’t know what to do so my wife can have a relationship with her son and not hate her daughter in law.”

- Art (53, Las Vegas, NV)

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Michelle Asked:

“My fiance Chad and I have been engaged since december 2008. He and his family doesn’t have a lot of money but I come from an upper middle class family and my parents feel as though no one is good enough unless they have a lot of money also. We are deeply in love with each other and are getting married May 5, 2012. We are both struggling financially in this economy and are trying our best but my parents keep putting us down and don’t approve of us or our future marriage. I’m afraid I’ve become an outcast in my family because they want to kick me out of the house because I’m past age to live there. I’m 26, and my brother was forced out at 25. However, since we are getting married soon, I am trying to save money by living at home still. It’s putting strain on our relationship and we are trying to get money to move south away from them. Why can’t my parents just accept us for who we are instead of trying to measure us by monetary value? Is this uncommon in our situation or are there other people that have families like mine?”

- Michelle (26, North Huntingdon, PA)

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Kapoor Asked:

“I love my wife very much. As far as love is concerned I don’t have any IFs or BUTs for her. But, when it comes to behavioral sense and adjustment with family and friends she hurts me a lot. She don’t like my parents/her in laws and nags always. She had shown some abrupt behave also to me as to scrach me in anger without any cause. He is leaving apart from me since last four months and we talk very less…whenever she talks also on phone she starts nagging…I am fed up with her this behave and wants her to be cured and think for me and her..our future and love. We have many fond loving moments together but she rarely reminds those…I feel very sad and missing her…I was under depression for almost 6 months because of this heart break also… what should I do?”

Regards,
- Kapoor (27)

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Scarlette Asked:

“I am 17 years old, I live with my family and am one of six children. I have three older siblings who are married and live a few hours away. Each of the siblings and in-laws come to stay every weekend and it is really hard on my two younger brothers and myself. We only have four bedrooms so my brothers and I are left sleeping on the floor in the living room, the basement, etc. My older siblings treat us unkindly and often have my younger brothers in tears because they tease and torment them. They leave our rooms and entire house a huge mess and it is hard to get everything organized and ready to go for school the next week. All my parents tell myself and my younger brothers is that we don’t have any money so anything we want/need, besides food, we have to pay for (which I realize may happen in some other homes) but when the older siblings come my parents take them out and buy them items for their homes, clothing, electronics.. Every weekend. They say they don’t want their married children to feel cut off. Whenever my brothers and I talk to my parents about the situation it turns into a humongous fight where my parents are screaming at us and tell us if we don’t like it then we can move out. What can I do to improve this situation? Am I just being a brat? I hate seeing my younger brothers so upset. Everyone thinks we are the perfect family. Please help.”

- Scarlette (17, Las Vegas, NV)

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Michael Asked:

“Theres a girl I met a couple of months back, through a mutual best friend, whom I started to get quite friendly with, nothin serious, just typical sweetheart stuff. Weve had continual conversations for the past 6 weeks and are both seeming remarkably ‘loved up’. This all sounds fine and everything, except for her family problems…Shes not the biggest ‘sharer’, so its not crystal clear what the problem is, but suffice it to say that our mutual best friend has our best intentions at heart and has simply explained it to me that her family are extremely over protective and untill her family situation cools down and gets better, bieng in a official relationship would cause her extreme amounts of grief with what would be an even more vexed family. No matter how hard Ive looked, I cant seem to find anything wrong with this girl and would be happy to wait for her because I want to be with her that much, but theres no telling how long itll take for her family situation to cool down, if it ever will and I just dont know what to do…any help will be much appreciated, thanks.”

- Michael (18, Derbyshire, England)

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Germaine Asked:

“since my son married his wife treats me very badly and tells blatant lies about me to my son and prevents me as much as she can spending time with my son – i live in paris and they live in USA – i am usually the one to travel to see them – since my last visit my son is very angry mainly because of stupid lies (eg.’your mother gets up late everymorning and just does her nails’) she overloads him with complaints about me and he finally explodes yelling at me accusingly – that’s how i know she lies – so back in paris i hardly hear from him and although i have written to her she never acknowledges my letters/emails – so what should i do? please help as your site seems the only one that can – with THANKS Germaine.”

- Germaine (66, Paris)

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Emma Asked:

“My son is a well respected physician, whose work consumes him. I have noticed and today his eldest son expressed to me that his dad, “puts him down”; doesn’t care about him; calls him names; I believe this is true, but perhaps not as regular as his son is telling me. (I hope) I would like advice about whether I should talk to my son. Am I likely to do more harm than good?”

- Emma (60, Andrews Farm, Australia)

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Bryan Asked:

“My father and mother divorced 30 years ago. My Mom has struggled to survive while my Dad has accumulated 12 million in assets. My Mom just had a bypass surgery and is unemployed. I am her only extra source of extra income. Don’t you think my Dad is somewhat responsible for leaving my Mom and should have a link to her as long as I am around? The divorce was because my Dad cheated on my Mom.”

- Bryan (36)

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Here is an excerpt from the book “Equality: The Quest for the Happy Marriage”

A life-altering conversation

Only about a month later I would have a conversation with my friend Kent that would change my life forever. I call this day the most important day of my life.  I had an epiphany.

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