A mom who makes unreasonable threats is alomost surely on something.
Mother controls via ultimatums
Dear Doug:
My partner’s mother has always been unsupportive and critical of her. Lately, she has given several ultimatums threatening she will refuse to come over for various family holiday gatherings. She “won’t come over” if we adopt two cats to be companions for our dog, or if we invite friends to Thanksgiving dinner, or if I invite any of my family for Christmas dinner. My partner says we should adopt the cats, invite our friends to Thanksgiving and have my family over for Christmas. If we do any of this, I fear we’ll never see her mother again. I feel torn.
Signed,
Torn between families
Dear Codependent,
Other columnists might correctly respond that this is a terrorist-like grab for control ...
