Is it Okay to Fight in Front of the Kids? How often have you heard the saying that you shouldn’t fight in front of the kids? You’ve probably said that you shouldn’t fight in front of the kids to your spouse when things have gotten heated up. Maybe you have read parenting books that tell [...]
Have you been the one to take care of family when others bailed out or abandoned you? Are you the one that keeps family members together at the expense of your own life? Perhaps you felt righteous, strong and saintly doing what needed to be done when everyone else behaved irresponsibly. .Over time the anger turns to rage, and the rage burns you. It makes you want to inflict on your family members what you went through. Suppressed anger makes you exhausted, stressed and unable to concentrate on your work or your routine tasks. Buried anger affects your sleep and your eating patterns. You can no longer live trapped and almost strangled to death by the anger that you have stored up against your family members you use you, abuse your sense of responsibiity and take advantage of your saintliness.
Angela and Josh a newly married couple were at logger heads about Angela's mother telling him how to treat and take care of her daughter. She kept calling and texting him about Angela's food needs, her anxieties, her need to get pregnant and the need for child to be a son. Josh tried to talk to Angela about his distaste for being told how to be a good husband by his mother-in-law, but Angela secretly smiled. She was thrilled that her mother was on Josh's back to do the 'right thing' by her, because she was too scared to do it herself. She loved that her mother was her champion, and whipping up her husband to do the same. What Angela didn't appreciate was that Josh was feeling emasculated and furious. He was angry about the temerity of his mother-in-law to tell him what to do, as if he knew nothing of his wife's needs. He was fuming that he wasn't given a chance to find his feet in his new role as a husband., But most of all he was livid that his wife enjoyed seening him as a puppet controlled by her mother.
Trudy a twenty-nine year old local newspaper reporter and Max a thirty-three year old limousine company owner had endless fights about who was doing the lion’s share of parenting their two children. They argued about what to do, how to do it, when to do it and who should take the blame when things went wrong. Trudy’s sister Sophie got mad at Max when she saw her sister miserable and at a loss. Sophie rescued Trudy countless times, and usually felt heroic in the process.
Do you feel like your family members don't care about you the way you care about them? Are you always wondering whether you matter to your spouse, your mother, your father or a sibling? Then you must be in a constant state of anger and sadness that you do everything you can to prove your love and commitment but are left hanging when it comes to getting the same back from them. Perhaps you hear complaints about the caring not being sufficient or good enough during family conflicts.
Dreading meeting up with loved ones while looking forward to it at the same time causes stress and ruins the occasion. The dread comes from the anxiety that you have to come face to face with an old part of you that you walked away from and that now threatens to take over again. You are back in an old war zone getting ready for battle scars instead of being ready to receive welcomes and loving embraces from family members. Learn 4 ways you can reunite with your old self in ways that empower you so that you can enjoy family reunions in peace and with pride.
Relationship Advice Tips By Dr. Jeanette Raymond, Ph.D. Just the thought of family tensions, arguments and disappointments can stress you out, fill you with dread and cause fatigue. Anticipating hurt and misunderstandings while at the same time hoping it will be different this time sets you up for a roller coaster of emotions that make [...]
