Ask Amy: Wife wants her mom and husband to be friends
Dear Amy: I was raised by a single mother. She’s an educated, liberal feminist who brought me up to be a strong and self-sufficient woman.
She is loving, open-minded and non-confrontational. We are very close, even though she lives in another state.
Every year she comes to stay at my house for a week or two and the two of us travel to visit other relatives. I always thoroughly enjoy our time together.
My husband was raised in a very patriarchal house by blue-collar workers who never denied him anything. He's brilliant and extremely successful, even though he never finished college (but he is insecure about how smart he is).
He's a man's man, physically strong, can fix anything, build anything, do anything he sets his mind to, takes excellent care of our grown children, and adores me.
My problem is that my husband and mother don't like each other.
They don't argue, but they definitely struggle to be in the same room.
Once my husband and I were debating about something and Mother got up abruptly and went to her room.
The next morning, she said that he was being mean to me. She worried that he didn't respect or care for me.
Even though I explained that was absolutely not true, she seemed very concerned.
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