Exposure

[SM34]

25, that was all very well written! Not sure if i came across as supporting shaming thr WAS, but let me clarify that I don't.

My father in law still doesn't know what's going on. He will be the one who will shame my wife the most when he finds ou, yet I don't want to be the one to tell him. He went through this same thing when my mother in law left him and this will be a painful reminder that more should have been done to teach my wife at an earlier age that what happened between her parents was unacceptable.

Just like to comment on family and friends not seeming to care...

I think us LBS will always feel that family of the WAS could have done more, could have said more, could have had stronger boundaries. I for one feel that if my daughter ever chose to cheat on her husband i would tell her in no uncertain terms that its unacceptable. I would make it clear that if she continued she would lose me, and I would follow through if need be. So why don't more parents and siblings do this?

Well, consider this, even though it is only one example of why...

My mother in law seems to be burying her head in the sand. But, I know from her husband telling me that she has gone into massive turmoil. She has actually increased her therapy sessions and her dr has bumped up dosages of anti depressants.

She is battling her own demons brougt on by this crisis. Itis a painful reminder of her own cheating, her own abandonment of her family, her own marriage to her OM which has been turbulent, her own feelings that she was a bad role model for her daughter, etc etc...

She just wants to pretend this is not happening because its too painful for her. She does not have the strength and courage to face it.

So, one reason some family may not do as much as us LBS think they should, might be because its too painful. It hits too close to home for many people. Perhaps they have cheated or they have been cheated on. It remins of the saying....

Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.

I think my father in law is more without sin than the rest of her family. He will surely cast not just the first stone, but the biggest most damaging one. Which is why my wife hasn't told him.

So consider that some family members may be hiding their own truths. And they may believe they are not without sin.

What bothers me about this is that my mother in law doesnt see that actually because of her experience she actually is in a very good position to influence my wife..

Imagine a conversation between the two of them about how MIL regrets what she did, or how much therapy she still needs even 20 years later, or how her new marriage is not the fairy tale she thought it woild be, or how she conteplated suicide at one point in he life because of the damage she has done (she told me this but wife doesn't know). But I understand why she can't say these things to my wife....

It would be an admission of guilt, it would ve a slap in the face for my wife to hear that the pain and torment she went through over her parents divorce was unwarranted. That the childhood she had could havr been better. It would negate all those 'reasons' that my wife and MIL have regurgitated for years as to why she HAD to leave my FIL. It would jeopardize the evil husband picture tha they have painted in regards to my FIL.

Funny that I have always considered that FIL is one of the most gentle, caring, and honorable person I have met. Yet his exwife and daughter paint a very different picture of him. I never understood why until I found myself here..

They have rewritten his history to justify the actions of MIL.

So I think some family pretends all is fine in the world because its theur defense mechanism to peotect them from theur own demons.

Few have the strength and courage to out their loved ones for their behavior. The world ha changed from those times.