I am back from Boston and mostly done with the "Your Perfect Right" book, about assertiveness, which this thread and my sitch are about.
So we are driving home from a chicken farm, with buckets of acrid, reeking chicken s*** in the back. Daughter is with. W starts ragging on me about how my mother never was able to run a tight, clean, household, which I found insulting. What is an appropriate response? We are 5 miles from home and I am driving.
This was a small conflict, and in some sense could be expected (she will rag on me again...). Are there other, tougher, conflicts that might be expected?
I want to take kids for vacations, for example, which costs money (and so the W would get less if we D). I'd like to gird myself in advance. The out loud rehearsal of a scenario and a response to it feels helpful.
The biggie will be that I am sleeping upstairs when son is here.
Do you have other 'commandments' for me regarding the kids? I found the 'separate W and kids in your head' very useful, as well as to be in touch with them every day (which I am now - thanks - and it is wonderful and feels right).
Gratefully - Luke
M58, xW54 S22, D18 M 1984, D 2016 Living a new life.
