Ask Amy: Brother loses sleep over mother’s behavior
– Fed Up
Dear Fed Up: You should work with your therapist to assess your own risk if you attend this wedding. Children raised by “borderline” parents or those who have NPD are always on high alert. The extreme instability and genuinely frightening experiences of childhood can affect all of your other relationships.
My own advice is to work on your own boundaries and – most important – build in an “escape hatch” to any encounter with your mother.
This wedding is not the place to try to educate your siblings about your mother’s suspected disorder.
Dear Amy: We recently celebrated Easter with our families.
My husband and I have a precocious seven-year-old daughter who we really enjoy. But any holidays or occasions where there are treats or presents involved seem to bring out the worst in her.
She rips through her gifts or treats and immediately starts complaining that there isn’t more.
I’m really sick of this. I am thinking of calling a halt to the abundance by basically not participating at all in “in-between” occasions like Valentine’s Day and Easter, and of really cutting down at Christmastime, but I’m not sure if that is the right response.
My husband and I agreed to let you weigh in.
– Gifting Mother
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