Tonight we are going to go visit my father-in-law and his wife for dinner. Just Bill and I. No kids. We do not have a relationship with him by our choice. He was verbally and mentally abusive to his first wife (my mother-in-law) for about 50 years before she finally found the backbone to leave him. Never since I have know him has he been truly interested in our lives outside of trying to sell us on some new crackpot viewpoint of his about politics and/or religion. A perfect example would be the year we had Christmas Dinner with him and he brought 'presents' for Bill and me, but none for the kids. The card attached the the 'present' said... "To Bill and Christina"!!!! I had been married to his son for 13 years at that point and he still didn't know my name?! Oh, and the 'present'? A bag full of anti-Mormon literature. Yeah. Merry Christmas to you, too.
So, 'why in the world are you going', you ask? Because since he has married this second wife, he has actually made an attempt at mending bridges. I think this has more to do with the moderating influence of his wife than anything else. We had a dinner with him last year in neutral territory (a restaurant) that, if embarrassing due to his appalling table manners, was not a complete disaster. So tonight I humor my husband and his yearning for a normal relationship with his father by going to dinner. Not with the kids, of course! There is too much history to expose my children to him.
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