I will maintain an open mind about this issue because I don't claim to be inherently likeable, especially to liberals, but it seems to me that when family members (and probably also friends) get married, we essentially lose them to their spouse.
It's as if their new spouses are jealous of us, and want to be their favorite, and try to turn them against us. They compete for our time. Worse off, the quirks about our personality that our friends and family find lovable and which "are you", and which prompt them to say "you have to know him", tend to be things the new spouse decides to be very close minded about. They essentially hate anything unique about us, and over time, the person who once loved our unique points frowns upon them.
Or maybe it's simply that our political views are the opposite of their spouse, and they don't want to offend their spouse. For example, my sister in law got her child vaccinated and he had (mild) autism, and then she got the Swine Flu shot while pregnant with her second child. Meanwhile I am a health food writer who in 2009 was thoroughly documenting the dangers in well researched articles that my own brother refused to read.
In any event, I feel as though my relationship with my brother deteriorated once he got married (I was the best man, now we hardly speak). And likewise when my mother remarried, she is now with a man who, while extremely loving and generous, basically has the political opinions of Jaylan, so we can't even talk two sentences and not have it blow up.
What has your experience been with people who marry? Do you gain their spouse, or do you lose them, or is it half and half?
It's as if their new spouses are jealous of us, and want to be their favorite, and try to turn them against us. They compete for our time. Worse off, the quirks about our personality that our friends and family find lovable and which "are you", and which prompt them to say "you have to know him", tend to be things the new spouse decides to be very close minded about. They essentially hate anything unique about us, and over time, the person who once loved our unique points frowns upon them.
Or maybe it's simply that our political views are the opposite of their spouse, and they don't want to offend their spouse. For example, my sister in law got her child vaccinated and he had (mild) autism, and then she got the Swine Flu shot while pregnant with her second child. Meanwhile I am a health food writer who in 2009 was thoroughly documenting the dangers in well researched articles that my own brother refused to read.
In any event, I feel as though my relationship with my brother deteriorated once he got married (I was the best man, now we hardly speak). And likewise when my mother remarried, she is now with a man who, while extremely loving and generous, basically has the political opinions of Jaylan, so we can't even talk two sentences and not have it blow up.
What has your experience been with people who marry? Do you gain their spouse, or do you lose them, or is it half and half?
