Couple resists pressure to attend family wedding
Dear Amy: My husband is from a European country. We are in our 60s.
I work part time, and he hasn't worked in a decade due to health problems.
We are being pressured by his family to attend his sister's wedding next year in Europe.
The costs would be astronomical for both of us to attend. We would have to stay with his mother, and one of us would have to sleep on a couch. Our little dog would have to be kenneled and we would be worried the whole time.
My husband hates weddings and social gatherings, and is refusing to go unless I go. He also says I should go without him.
His family is feuding. Half won't attend this wedding (and they live there). His mother was yelling when I told her he didn't want to go. She implied that his sister would be extremely upset if we don't go.
My husband doesn't want his sister to hate him.
What is the way out of this mess?
-- Hard Pass
Dear Hard Pass: You and your husband need to find one excuse (sorry, make that "reason") to miss this wedding, and stick with it. Piling on various (completely valid) reasons to miss this wedding makes it seem as if you are trying to create a smoke screen. (Do you want to go without your husband? If so, then attend, but understand that this will not satisfy his family.)
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