As if marriage wasn’t hard enough, often it feels like extended family just makes it harder! They keep butting in to your personal business, expecting things of you that you don’t want to do and getting upset at you when you didn’t mean any harm.
Believe us when we say that WE GET IT! Just look at this list of extended family struggles we’ve faced:
- Shortly after our marriage, Blaine’s parents divorced
- Audrey has 5 full siblings, 5 half siblings and 7 step siblings- try getting along with that many people!
- We both had family members who criticized us for homeschooling our children
- For a long time, certain family members didn’t like one or the other of us
And there’s more. This is a TOUGH part of marriage that often isn’t addressed but it has to be! Our relationships with our parents and siblings can nourish our marriage or weaken it depending on how we handle it.
In this video we give you a couple tips on how to make the process of dealing with extended family a little easier.
But MOST IMPORTANTLY – Support Each Other!! Talk things through, make a decision and then have the courage to stand up to your family when you need to – it will make all the difference.