Ask Amy: Aunt wonders if a violent abuser can change
For anyone experiencing partner violence, there is confidential help and support available. Contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline (Thehotline.org). Counselors are available 24/7 either online or by phone: (800) 799-7233.
Dear Amy: My husband and I have been married for 18 years. We have a good marriage. This is a second marriage for us both, and we have weathered the storms with our blended family successfully.
We are political opposites and have lively disagreements, but we can always agree to disagree without rancor.
Our friends and family can’t always seem to do likewise.
A high school friend recently texted me that my husband’s Facebook posts about politics were so annoying she was considering unfriending him.
I did not know how to respond. What could I have said?
Stymied
Dear Stymied: In these politically divisive times, successful marriages between political opposites seem to be quite rare. Good for you!
One reason your marriage has been so successful might be because you and your husband are both mature enough to differentiate: He doesn’t represent or speak for you, and you don’t represent or speak for him.
I assume that as frustrating as your spousal political differences are, on some level you both realize that access to your spouse’s point of view broadens your own understanding. People who circulate only in their own bubbles seem to have developed a limiting binary: X = bad, Y = good. And the world doesn’t seem to work that way.
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