Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A little back story, my wife has a few annoying habits that I tend to tease her about. One of them is she doesn't use condiments on her food. Yesterday we went to a bbq at my uncle's house and usually she'll avoid eating certain food like hamburgers or hot dogs in front of them because she doesn't want my family to talk about how she eats. Yesterday she had an Italian sausage (just the sausage alone) and I asked her if she wanted a bun and she said no. Then one of my cousins asked her if she wanted mustard or relish and she said no thanks so she said you're just going to eat it plain, that's weird. I told her she eats all of her food like that, then I joked saying she doesn't eat like a human (something I always tell her) and she was really quiet the rest of the time we were there. She's usually quiet so I didn't think anything of it. On the car ride home, she started crying and said I embarrassed her in front of my family and she said this is why she doesn't like going to their events or eating around them. I apologized and told her we always joke like that, but she said she didn't take it as a joke. She hasn't spoken to me since. How can make this up to her?
Your family sounds a lot like mine. A lot of fun. We kid around a lot. If we make fun of you, it means we like you. If I take a guy around my family and they don't make fun of him by the end of the day, they don't like him. If you are a little sensitive then families like this are going to be hard on you. I assume your wife knew about your family before marrying you. If she knew this then she also needs to grow a little tougher knowing who she is dealing with. Can you and your family take it a little easier on her? Sure but she has to give some too. Maybe make a little fun of herself about her condiment use and then that takes the attention off her. You didn't embarrass her in front of your family, she got treated like the rest of the family. You don't want your wife to be that one person the whole family has to tiptoe around all the time. That causes way to many problems and the family will start to think she isn't really part of them. You could back of a bit but she needs to grow a little armor around your family and be able to take and give it back when she is around them.