Kelton…I really feel bad about how your sister treated you and I do think it speaks to her character. I mean, we can’t blame everything on her husband, Jay’s dad. It’s not like he put a gun to her head and demanded she turn her back on her only brother. Jay you be careful because I agree with Luke, she’s angry with you for drudging all of this back up.
Karen, I’m glad you are free and I am so sorry you felt your hands were tied when it came to caring for your daughter. I think you were right and you should have been heard. I am really sad to hear how you felt rarely mattered. I know how that is though. Dad was like that with our mother. I intensely disliked our father, and like Carmine says he was the first scary person I encountered in life. He beat on our mother, he beat on us kids. We were silent about it most of the time because, as males, we were expected to suck it up and deal with it. That was the manly thing to do. This helps me greatly respect what Mason said about the male role in a family. It’s not easy because we grow up hearing we can’t cry, we can’t show to much emotion, but we are expected to automatically know how to love our families when we have been taught to show love is to be weak. It’s all the mixed messages and conflicting messages that make it hard and send us to the bar to have a few stiff ones. I don’t teach my sons they can’t cry. I don’t them not to hug and show affection. I don’t tell them their feelings don’t matter. I don’t want my wife to feel as if her feelings don’t matter.
Shawn…dude that is a scary situation. I’m glad you stood your ground but I’m getting tired of working around so many crazy people. I think it’s worse in the era of trump. I think it’s nice to pick up on the desires of people close to us without them providing verbal confirmation. I agree, we need to pay closer attention to the none verbal ways we communicate with each other. I know I’ll be fine-tuning my sixth sense going forward.