This is a very sad thread. How can someone accomplished like your sister let her husband walk all over her?? why do any women tolerate this??

And the worst part of all of this is the perpetual cycle has started: her daughter will be growing up and seeing this abuse and think that it is ok.

This is beyond my understanding.

Anonymous wrote:You witnessed his sh*tty behavior towards your sister and you didn't put him in his place or at least call him out on his comments? I would never let anyone speak to my sister that way.

NP: I can't help snapping at people who are bullies like this. Sometimes people will shut it down if you call them on it. If I felt like I'd be making my sister's life worse by responding to him, I would avoid him (as in no vacations together). What an ass.

This reminds me a lot of my sister. PhD from Harvard, and incredibly good looking, but she has low self-esteem and is a self-hater (as am I). Her husband is emotionally abusive, and as soon as I saw it I spoke up. She lives across the country, so I hadn’t gotten the chance to know him till they were engaged. I was scared for her. She burst into hysteria and started hitting herself, and my parents yelled at me for trying to ruin the wedding. *sigh* I backed off for a while because I don’t like talking about things that I can’t change. Also, if you attack the husband then she will defend him. They almost got divorced because of it. She talked to my parents and my dad told her he didn’t think she could do better. Seriously, WTF?! Also, my father was emotionally and verbally abusive to us growing up, and my mother was emotionally abusive, so that really impacted us. Since she’s intent on staying I’ve talked to her about standing up to him and/or making him go to marriage counseling as an ultimatum to divorce. It’s sad, and my heart breaks for her, but all I can do is support her. I’m sorry for your sister too. She and her baby deserve so much better.

It's a little late to say anything after she's had a newborn with him. Why didn't you say anything when they were dating or during the engagement? Or anytime pre-kid?