We are never getting our house back. The evil mother-in-law is still here and jobless. The husband has totally cut her off financially but she is still sitting on my couch. When I was starting college my mother told me one day to leave the house and not come back unless I had a job. I would like to apply the same strategy to the evil mother-in-law but the husband seems to be employing a “ignore her and maybe she’ll disappear” tactic. It is not working.

The deadbeat contractor is also still here. He comes here and works but never seems to be any closer to completion of the basement. The husband confessed to having a dream the other night that the contractor went downstairs and tore apart everything that has been done just so he could start all over.

The theme here is that the husband is entirely too nice and too passive. On one hand he might be the same way towards me if I’ve been bad so I don’t want to change this completely but he needs to stand up to these people. Conversely, he could let me stand up to those people but they both know that if they go to him he’ll just say that everything is ok. I don’t know how to jar him out of his complacency. He hates the situation too but won’t do anything about it.