Carolyn Hax, January 29 2024: “Husband demands access to in-laws to get in on expensive gifts.”
He's perfect, except when he's not.
Link to original letter here.
My take: To recap, for four years the LW’s husband has “made it clear” to her family that he holds them in contempt and wants nothing to do with them. Now her family has made some generous gifts to their other son-in-law…their nice son-in-law… and the LW’s husband is royally ticked-off. He’s blaming her (that’s right, don’t even ask). He’s also demanding that she get him back in her parents’ good graces (he “gave me an assignment, like I’m one of his direct reports,” she writes).
So should she do it, she asks? “Should I just ask my family to give him a second chance?”
And of course, her husband “has many good qualities, and they’ve had “a very happy marriage for the past four years”!
So it’s another for that big category of letters we might summarize as: “My spouse is perfect expect when he’s a pig.”
Carolyn’s answer is perfect, fortunately—four sentences and she nails it.
Chance this letter is fake: Sadly, I don’t think so.