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Dear Breakup Girl,

My husband and I recently moved to a another state to be closer to his family... it's been the biggest mistake I have ever made! His family (mainly his two sisters) constantly teases him about how he helps me with the kids and housework. The other day, I overheard a phone conversation between him and his younger sister where she wants to introduce him to her friend since she thinks that they would make a great couple! This is where I draw the line and it's at the point where I feel he needs to choose them or me. But I don't know how to say it so it doesn't sound like an ultimatum -- like, choose me or your evil, ugly, mean-spirited, conniving, jealous, catty, gossipy sisters! Help!

-- Suz

Dear Suz,

Remember what I told Quiet Girl? See, your issue isn't with Regan and Goneril, it's with your husband. Says our own Belleruth: "He shouldn't even be entertaining these conversations with them, or allowing them to talk this way to him at all. If and when he does, his loyalties are all outta whack. What you might want to say is, 'Why are you letting them think they can talk this way about us? Where are your loyalties? How much do you value your marriage to me?' It's really at that level. If things go on this way, the best case scenario is that you'll endure in this marriage, but your self-respect will not."

So you have our permission, Suz, to draw that line. And why shouldn't it sound like an ultimatum ... as long as you mean it?

And just as a dig, it's clear that the sisters-in-crime either are jealous of you or that they've got all that free time because their husbands are doing all the housework.

Love,
Belleruth and Breakup Girl

 
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