WAW...Again, Part II

[stumps]

So apparently the fact that W announced to all the neighbors that we are getting divorced is coming around to bite her in the butt a little bit. She came to me this morning and said that one neighbor informed her last night that a second neighbor has been "gossiping" about us and saying that W should count her blessings that she's married to such a great guy that is willing to own his flaws and take every step he can to fix them, and that W needed to learn how to forgive and forget because she would be throwing away a good solid family man if she didn't.

W was pretty irritated about this and asked if I had heard any of this, and I told her that I hadn't, and I made it clear that I have not discussed our sitch with any of the neighbors (kept my mouth shut about the flip-side of that, which is that none of them would even know what was up if she hadn't chosen to tell them all). I also tried to validate her feelings by saying I could certainly see why what the neighbor said would upset W, particularly because the neighbor was forming and sharing an opinion without knowing the full story. Also kept my mouth shut about FIL telling me that not only were he and MIL pulling for me, but all of the neighbors were too (including the one that informed W about the gossip!).

This has certainly confirmed for me the value in not making all of this public and discussing it with anyone who will listen. I'm not even sure what the heck W thought was going to happen when she discussed this everyone...we live in a pretty tight-knit little enclave and she is well-aware that everyone talks about everything around here. The only thing I can figure is she was feeling low and/or trying to make allies or something...or maybe she just needed to vent. But she vented to some of the biggest blabber-mouths on the planet.

Sure am glad I choose my sympathetic ears a little more wisely...