From the time we first moved in together, my husband and I have gone to his parents' house every Sunday for dinner and to spend time together, usually watching a movie or playing games. In March, his younger brother moved away to college out of state, and now whenever we go over, his mother spends most of the time on the phone with the younger brother and ignoring us. His father usually leaves the room and does something else. Since his brother left, we are more or less ignored whenever we go over. We have even tried going less frequently, perhaps twice a month or once every three weeks, and this doesn't seem to make them want to value the time we spend with them any more. His mother either talks about the brother or spends all her time on the phone with him, and won't even sit through a movie with us without interrupting it for the phone call and never coming back to finish watching with us. This has irritated my husband - who has always been close to his family - to the point where he is talking about not going over there at all anymore. At the same time, I wonder if his mother is holding some grudge for something she perceives that we did or did not do to wrong her and is doing this on purpose - she is that kind of person. It's heartbreaking to watch, and I don't know what to do about it short of calling his mother up and saying, "Do you have an issue? Because you're pushing away your son." None of us are very confrontational and I don't want to butt my nose in and make things worse, but that family is already pretty shattered - his uncle hasn't spoken to his father in 18 years, for instance, and my mother-in-law is not on speaking terms with her sister - and I don't want to see it break apart worse, when at the time that I met my husband, they were the most important thing in his life. Does anyone have some advice?
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