When it's a one-way street...part 2

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He definitely shouldn't help himself to food off your plate. That's not appropriate, I'm with you on that.

Narcissism is tough. My MiL is a narcissist and it did a job on her daughters including my W. It's very, very hard to live with. It ended up leading to her divorce. She went through a series of relationships but really wasn't happy until she finally married a guy who's real "old school" and doesn't take any crap. He's the king in his castle as it were.

She seems to take some comfort in this, but it still leads to crazy tension because the universe does rotate around my MiL.

Have you studied up at all on Narcissistic personality disorders and how to deal with them? Maybe that would help, or find a therapist who specializes in it and go yourself to better understand how to deal.

As you suggest, he may simply be incapable of changing on his own, but you may find a path to forcing a healthier interaction through research.

The narcissism thing was a big lightbulb going off for me Crazyville, I've seen how that works first hand and it is tough.

My relationship with MiL is funny -- she used to do things like just walk into our house without knocking. I told her that had to end or she wouldn't be invited back and now she's scared of me. It drives her crazy that virtually everyone caters to her except her husband and I.

She likes to break my W down almost to tears and then build her back up again. It's infuriating to be around.

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