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SO, I'm what is referred to in my family of origin as a mama bear. meaning, i have a very low tolerance for people fucking with my children. So, where other mothers might quietly bite their lip when someone makes a snide comment about her parenting or her child's weight or her child's temperament, my bite turns outward, in the direction of the speaker's jugular when I'm feeling my feistiest. Or when another child baits them in order to get them in trouble. Then sits back to enjoy the tongue lashing directed at the other child. Let's just say after a weekend in close quarters with some family who don't know how to treat my children fairly, that's precisely how it went down. It was unpleasant, yeah. But I've never been someone who takes well to that "Oh, but you're FAMILY, we can say that kind of thing to each other!" I don't get that. Wouldn't you want to be MORE respectful of your family since generally speaking, you got what you got on that front. You can shit on strangers all you want -- you don't have to pass them the stuffing at Thanksgiving. So now, my in laws have seen a glimmer of what my family of origin has long known. I don't make space in my life for anyone who has such little respect that after I've voiced my hurt feelings they continue about their merry fucking business repeating the behaviors that caused those hurt feelings. That's not family. That's not family as I want my children to understand it. Allowing someone to treat you badly is not doing them any favors either. They will never be the better person they can be if you don't call them to a higher standard. If you call them to a higher standard, but they dig their feet in, that's they're prerogative, but that's for sure not love and if a family isn't love, what is it? It's nothing; that's what it is.