Our Family Dynamics Changed Overnight Overnight, our lives changed, forever.
The relationship with my in-laws was a comfortable one, with time spent together at family dinners and holiday celebrations, so the birth of our twins was a double blessing for all of us. Once, after they were born, Peggy cradled Leah and gazed into her eyes and grinned. “I’m going to have so much fun dressing her in all those cute little clothes.”
Al, my husband’s dad, had commented about his younger wife, “Peggy would have been a good mom. It’s a shame she didn’t have children. She’ll be a big help with your kids, and will treat them as her own.”
After that conversation we spent more time with my in-laws, bringing our children to their home for weekly visits.
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“My mom’s mad at you, Linda,” Peggy said, “for leaving on a trip over Thanksgiving,” Peggy scowled as she picked her teeth with her nail.
“Mad? Why’d she care that I left?” I asked folding my arms.
“She thinks you left so you wouldn’t have to invite her and my dad for Thanksgiving.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I told Peggy. “I like your parents and always enjoyed including them. Why would she think that?”
“Because they have no money,” Peggy said. “She thinks that’s why you didn’t want her over.”
Peggy’s mother never said those words. Peggy liked to create drama and trouble; and here she was doing both at my expense.
Trying to ease any further resentment, we continued taking Levi and Leah over to their house and once again the problems started. Whatever character development we strove for in our children, Peggy took an opposite course. Joe and I had restricted Levi from television, but when I picked him up from his grandmother’s, he was sitting in her back room, watching T.V.
“Peggy, what are you doing? We told you about Levi.”
“Oh, he’s at Grandma’s, he can do whatever he wants here.” She turned away from me and flipped through some coupons on her