Episode 11: In-laws making you feel like an outlaw

 Extended families can get messy, really, really messy. Especially when it is your in-laws. From overbearing, opinionated, and sometimes just downright mean or cruel. It can all take a toll on you and your marriage. Maneuvering through these relationships can become quite complicated and overwhelming all the while trying to balance a happy face to keep from putting gas on the fire. It can also often cause you and your spouse to argue about it creating rifts and frustration in your marriage. Jessica addresses all these and more, providing healthy, safe, and peaceful ways to change the dynamic between you, your in-laws and relieving this from you and your spouse's disagreement list. 

Episode Transcript

Jessica: [00:00:47] This is the confident marriage podcast. And I'm your host, Jessica. Welcome to another episode. This is episode 11. In-laws making you feel like an outlaw, but before we get started, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. As a matter of fact, pause the show, hit subscribe really quick and then come back.

We'll wait for you.

you didn't do it. Did you? Oh, well just do it later. Promise me. So also don't forget to like, and follow us on our social media platforms. Facebook at the confident marriage. Twitter, the see marriage show and Instagram at the co or no, it's not the confident marriage anymore. It's just confident marriage.

If you think you're already following us on Instagram, you might want to double check that because I was kicked off Instagram a few weeks back and had to recreate an account. So, if you want the details on that, you'll have to go back to the last episode, lingering eyes to hear the story. I didn't go into too much detail, but it's kind of funny, but we also had a special guest that everyone loved

Sean: [00:02:05] I'm

Jessica: [00:02:06] back.

Sean: [00:02:08] I hope everybody enjoyed my podcast debut last week. This is Sean Jessica's husband. Leave it to my wife to get kicked off of Instagram. Oh my God. I hope you all loved hearing from me last week. I know. I always love hearing my own voice, but seriously. Jessica has generously offered for me to come back and put in my 2 cents this week.

And we'll see how it goes. Don't forget. Jessica announced a couple of weeks ago, the launch of her brand new website, please check it out. It has links to easily find her on social media as well as a resource page that has lots of good books, lots of good information. And it also has all of her podcasts listed for easy listening.

That website is www.confidentmarriage.com.

Jessica: [00:02:47] Thank you, honey. We got so many great responses having you on the last show that I thought it'd be a great idea to have you back. You've got a lot of really good input on this one. As a matter of fact, a listener had asked that we do an episode on in-laws and my first thought was, Oh, who has really mastered the art of in-laws and all the drama, controversy, and mess that they come with.

Anyways. In this episode, I do have a lot of hacks and tips I've learned throughout my years, that I really think that you guys could use not many of us have a wonderful relationship with our in-laws some worse than others. It is a balance of keeping healthy boundaries, not allowing ourselves to be walked on, having self-respect and keeping peace with everyone for the sake of our spouse.

Our children and our own sanity. It is a balancing act and it's difficult to maintain and it gets out of whack sometimes. So I want to start with an activity. We're going to take a stroll with your family. No, in-laws allowed just your beloved family and cats. If you're a cat lover, I'm a dog lover. Yeah.

Rough. The ones you love

Sean: [00:04:07] podcasts, starting to get a little rough

Jessica: [00:04:11] ones. You love the ones you hate, the ones who you fill in different to just picture their faces moments with them. The good ones, the awkward ones, the bad ones. Think about the arguments you've had with them in the past, the times that they've hurt you, offended you or upset you, the times you've hurt them, offended them or upset them, the differences in opinions, lifestyle, what should be and what shouldn't be.

These are your flesh and blood. You grew up with these people and they grew up with you, no matter how much younger or older they are than you, all of us as people we're always growing up. These are the people that we're supposed to love unconditionally, but sometimes we even have to cut ties with them.

Your family isn't drama free. Is it? You're not drama free, are you? No, no, no. Well, some of us prefer a calmer life. Life is life and with it, we get drama. When you add more lives to life, you have more drama. There was no way around it. As we move forward. In this episode, I want you to keep this in the back of your mind.

No family is perfect. No person is perfect. Every family and every person comes with its flaws, dimensions, demons, unhealthy behaviors, opinions, dynamics, and attitudes. As my mom likes to phrase it, people are messy understanding. This is the foundation to the rest of the podcast. The acceptance and realization that every family has their own shit means that you can't expect your in-laws to be any different.

I know it can seem worse to you because your drama is different than theirs. Meaning you're used to it. It's normal for you, but everyone shit smells worse than our own. Doesn't it? So their family issues are different than the ones you're familiar with and the ones that you've experienced. It always seems like everyone else's drama is worse than ours.

Don't forget though, just as they are different to you and they seem worse to you, you are different to them and seem worse to them. Didn't that? Take some weight off your shoulders, some expectations maybe that you didn't know, you were consciously carrying around. Whew, breathe that one through

Sean: [00:06:43] expectations.

Now that's a doozy expectations are one of the biggest personal hangups we can have in this life. Not just about in-laws, but about people in general, about jobs, about your future, about a lot of things. The problem with expectations is they inevitably lead to failure. Resentment. That's what I was looking for.

Jessica: [00:07:08] Sorry.

Sean: [00:07:09] Expectations will inevitably lead to resentment. It is impossible. And it is unfair of you to have an expectation of someone. No matter how many times they live up to your expectation, there's going to come that time when they let you down and they don't live up to that expectation. And then you're going to resent them for it.

You can't help it. It's human nature.

Jessica: [00:07:29] Well, a lot of times we bring problems on ourselves and we even create the problems. A lot of times just realizing that even while it clearly seems to be someone else's fault that they did this to me, they said that about me. It isn't really anyone's fault, but our own for expecting a certain behavior attitude, way of thinking way of life or how we expect they should respond

Sean: [00:07:54] to us.

I know that both my wife and myself. I've had unfair expectations of each other and it's like, you do something for your spouse and then you have an expectation of how they're going to react. And then since they're a person and they're not just a creation of your mind, they have a different reaction and then you feel let down or disappointed.

I know what's happened to it with each other. Right,

Jessica: [00:08:15] right. That's probably one of the biggest things that we had to learn was stopped the expectations. So I do talk a lot about the glasses that we wear, and this is where our ex ex. Beck tations,

Sean: [00:08:27] easy for you to say,

Jessica: [00:08:29] right? I was going to stop the recording, but you just made it funny.

This is where our expectations. Yeah. This is not fair. This is where our expectations can distort our reality. These glasses were created in our mental warehouse, built from our life experiences, our beliefs, our situations and events. No one in this world wears the same pair of glasses that you do, or that I do, or that my husband does.

You should you're book smart. Don't book, smart people wear glasses. No, we're just smart. Oh, got it. So, as I was saying, these glasses, they're yours alone. These glasses dictate how we feel, abuse situations, how we respond to things, what are morals, values, opinions, beers, strengths, all those things where all that comes from, this is where the differences between people and the conflicts come into play.

Hence problems it's because we believe. That something should happen a certain way. And then we put that on another person, expecting them to react, behave, say, or do something within the confines of what we think they should do, or it should be done because that's our world and our minds. Those are the kinds of expectations that hurt our relationships, not just our marriage.

But with our family, our coworkers, our friends, it sets us up for failure. As my husband was saying earlier, and it sets the other people up for failure with us. There is absolutely no winning in this situation. Not for you and not for them. There's no way for anyone. Not even your spouse to know exactly how to act, what to do, what to say at every given moment.

So they're going to let you down as long as you have those expectations lingering within you. So take a look at that. Cause a lot of times. We're doing it and we don't even realize it. I can guarantee you that if you're let down or you're offended, unless it's a direct stab at you, usually it's an expectation.

Let me give you an example from personal experience, one Christmas, quite a few years ago, we decided to do an adult gift exchange just for the adults as we do for the child. Yeah. Not like

Sean: [00:10:52] adult gift exchange, like X-rated stuff,

Jessica: [00:10:54] right? No, no, no, no, no. This was like just gifts for the adults. Got it, unless you're my brother, then it's X-rated and he just is weighed like that.

So I was chosen to purchase for my aunt, which is my uncle's wife. So she's related by marriage and, uh, she's really difficult to buy for she's from Korea. And she came here in her late adulthood. So she carries still a lot of her culture and values with her here. And she's often felt kind of outside of the family.

Um, I don't know why we've all tried really hard to make her feel wanted and loved. I think that she's just another person who feels uncomfortable, new country, new family, new people. And so I really wanted to go all the way out for her. I wanted her to feel so loved and. So special, but I couldn't find anything that I thought she would really, really like.

So it was at a cosmetic store and I smelled this perfume and, Oh my gosh, it was so exquisite. I wanted it for myself. Turns out that it's one of the most popular and most sought out after perfumes and everybody wanted it. And I thought, well, that was perfect for her. Cause she's totally into like fashion and trends and stuff like that.

So I bought it for her. And I was so excited. I couldn't wait until Christmas to see her open it. So Christmas day came and everybody's opening up their gifts. And I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat. I could not wait for her to open it. And finally her time came and she opens the gift and she just looks at it and she says, Oh, thanks.

And then puts it down. I just about fell apart in front of everybody. She didn't show it off. Like everybody else did with their gifts, passing it around. She wasn't happy about it. She wasn't excited about it. I couldn't figure out what the problem was. So I was really hurt. I was devastated and I held some resentment towards her for a years.

I mean, I was broken hearted. My ego was torn. I was just pissed and she was different towards me after that too. And I never could figure out why. So a few years later I see the perfume in my grandmother's bathroom and I asked her where she got it. And she told me that my aunt had given it to her that Christmas night, she explained that my aunt was so offended by the gift that she didn't want to keep it.

I couldn't figure out why it offended her. And then I thought, well, I have the gift receipt there. Why didn't she just return it or tell me that she didn't like it? Like what was offensive about it? It's it's perfume. So all these years we held this resentment towards each other. All I wanted to do was make her feel loved.

I felt like the one who was. Done wrong. I was doing something nice for her. I wanted her to feel loved and special. I was the one that was dissed, but none of that mattered communication was the only way to resolve this. So I took my ego and I shoved it into deep, deep, ugly town. And I told her that I knew she gave my grandmother the perfume, and I wanted to understand why.

I told her my side of the story, what had happened in my perspective and asked her to tell me hers. It turns out the name of the perfume was unforgiven. The writing was so hard for me to read and I just got so excited about the gift that I didn't read it properly either. And I thought it said unforgettable.

She took offense to it, thinking that I was trying to say something to her about her culture or something that she did to offend me. And I was trying to make a statement, which definitely was nowhere, anywhere near the truth. I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to have that out of our hair. The tension between us has gone now and we're able to develop a whole new relationship.

And it was just from taking the time to see her side and her to listen to mine, even if she didn't believe me, no matter how ridiculous I thought she was being, I made a genuine immense for my part. And we moved on. Had I not swallowed my pride, started the conversation and owned where I was wrong. Even if I didn't agree, we would have never had the chance to change our relationship.

It's not about what I thought about her reasons. It was about how she experienced the situation through her glasses, how it was offensive to her. That's all that mattered. We would have still been battling each other and making up more shit to hate each other about to this day. You know what I'm talking about.

Once someone gets on our bad side, there's almost nothing that they can do, right. At that point, you're just always building a criminal case against them. Every single chance you get, and it starts to pile up and just become out of hand.

Sean: [00:15:47] And there you go. As my wife, so eloquently summed up there, she had an expectation and that expectation wasn't met and then to take it a step further, the reaction was the complete opposite.

And so her ego was hurt. And that brings me to the next thing. That is a huge problem when it comes to anything, but definitely in family dynamics and within laws, his ego ladies, you know, your mother-in-law probably has a huge ego or at least it seems that way to you. And probably to them, it seems like you have a huge ego and guys that goes for you too.

The key to getting. These situations turned around is number one, to not have an expectation that someone's going to act as you think they're going to act, but have acceptance that they're going to act as they are going to act. And that ego needs to be put aside. Now that's something I can practically speak on because I have had to do that with my in-laws honey, as you know, and I've had some pretty big problems with my hand was with Jessica's parents.

It's a lot better now. And to get there. I had to put my resentments on hold and I had to put my ego aside and I had to reach out and I had to clean up my side of the street and give them an opportunity to speak on their side. And I had to accept how they felt I had to stop trying to change how they felt and accept how they felt.

I think we've come a long way that Eagle will kill you every time, not just within laws, but

Jessica: [00:17:16] with everything. Yeah. So that's one way to start. Making some changes with your in-laws to start cleaning out your closet with them one at a time alone. Face-to-face if you can. Don't come at it with, uh, with defensiveness argument of, or accusations, like Sean said, be loving kind and understanding, even if you don't agree, this isn't about you, this isn't about you winning, getting an apology or changing someone's mind about you.

This is about making sure your side of the street is clean. That your shit is as clean and smells as good as it possibly can genuinely. And don't. Fake it because people smell fake, like they smell bacon and you know, you don't have any bacon bits in your pocket to give them as treats. So just you're going to destroy yourself.

You're going to destroy the situation if you're not sincere. And I can't emphasize enough, do not go into this. Looking for them to understand you looking for an apology for them to see your side. This isn't about you. It's about apologizing to them. If you go into this with any expectation, you're already screwed.

I will tell you this. If you go into this selflessly, Sincerely and apologize. You planted the seed and no matter how they react to you, no matter what they say to you, they are going to walk away thinking about this and the amazing thing you just did, you planted the seed, let it grow.

Sean: [00:18:44] And that's what happened to a great extent with my in-laws is having put the ego aside and put any expectations aside.

It's nothing really changed in the beginning. But it did plant that seed and in keeping with, uh, the no ego and no expectations. Only speaking on my side of it, that that seed eventually grew and into a tree. So to try to make, to try to sum it up, try to make it a little more easily understood. It's like, you can't go into it saying, well, I'm sorry I did this, but you did this, this and this.

You need to forget about anybody else's actions and you need to only speak on your own. I'm sorry that I did this and you can't worry about their side.

Jessica: [00:19:30] And I do need to touch on something here briefly. We can't change people's opinions about us. We just can't no, no matter how right or wrong their opinions are of us, we can't change them.

You're never going to be able to do that. Let me put it to you this way. While one person wants you to be one way. Another person will want you to be a completely different way. You're going to piss one of them off. All you can do is be yourself and not try to get people to like you to change their minds about you, or think differently about you.

Just let that shit be. You can't change it. You got better things to do than waste your time. Trying like listening to my podcast. Another really important lesson to keep your cats. Oh boy. Another important lesson to keep with you in any relationship or situation is that you are not responsible for anyone but yourself.

No one can make you behave, say, or act in any way, your behaviors, your words, your reactions, your responses, choices. They're all yours alone. What comes with this though is the power of the inability to be able to change. What's done. You can't undo. What's done. So be careful and be intentional with your interactions and your choices.

Be sure to stay kind loving and understanding with people. Remember, you don't know what things look like through their glasses, give them that benefit of the doubt. If they say something that you're offended by, or you're not sure how to take, ask them to explain what they meant and tell them that you don't understand.

Don't jump to conclusions when you're angry, upset, or hurt about something. Just take some time to think about, think about the situation and what would be a positive and kind way to respond or deal with it. Never go with your knee jerk reaction. Never. You can say things like, I need to think about that, or I haven't thought about it that way before then.

Let it go and use that old saying sleep on it. Like literally wait a day or two, even better, five to eight days before responding to it or asking any questions or saying anything. Make sure you've thought about it. Thoroughly, maybe talk it over with someone, do some writing. If you like to write before taking the task on, I will talk about this a little bit more in a moment.

In my last episode, lingering eyes, I talked about your choices. It applies here too. If the situation is becoming really uncomfortable or being taken too far, you don't have to stay for that. You can leave, you can take control of the situations you're in and the situations you allow yourself to be in. Do not.

Fight or argue with your spouse about it. So here's a little trick, make sure you and your spouse have talked about your game plan beforehand. So like, let's say you're getting ready to go to an, a party or an event or something with your family. And you know, that there's been problems before and you're afraid that it might be a little too much for you.

So you and your spouse have the talk beforehand. And you both make sure you're on the same page. Should you feel like you need to leave at any point and together you two need to come up with what your spouse will use as an excuse with their family so that your spouse can be the one to excuse you to you don't do it.

Your spouse does it. You also need to make sure that you have some kind of code, word, hand, cue, or gesture, something in place that no one can hear hiccup on Coco. Yeah. That's subtle Katz. Yeah, that only you two knows what it means and something very discreet. So if the situation is such that you need to leave, make sure you quietly and discreetly with no one else knowing use you and your spouse's secret cue, your spouse needs to be respectful.

They need to back you up, not question you and never let anyone know what's going on and your spouse can then use the excuse that you guys made up to. Excuse the two of you from the event, the situation, the conversation, whatever. And you both part like nothing is going on. You're both all good.

Everyone's happy. It's all peachy. Life's wonderful. De classy, stay kind, stay loving and respectful. Both of you then later you and your spouse compound about what happened and figure out what your next steps are going to be. So it's just, it

Sean: [00:23:59] is literally just like you were talking about last week in lingering eyes.

When we spoke on what to do when someone is giving you or your spouse, the I situations that make one or the other uncomfortable, you both have to be on the same page. Both of you have to be on the same page. Both of you have to be on the same team. You need to be looking out for each other.

Jessica: [00:24:19] So just remember your behavior is your responsibility.

You don't need to do it in a dramatic way. Stay classy, stay confident the whole time. You don't want to regret anything. You can't take it back. If you and your spouse are able to accomplish this in a loving, cool and calm way you have both just set yourself up for success. And when you or your spouse decide to address it, you'll be able to, you'll already have the foundation set.

Do not abuse this though. People will catch on if you're not being legitimate with your reasons. And you're being unfair to your spouse and abusing your spouse's dedication to you. That's not cool. It's also not cool that you decide for your spouse. What is a legitimate reason and what is not stay clean on this.

So you both can trust one another. If either one abuses this, then it's going to wreck your marriage and your relationship with your in-laws even more. I want to move into your marriage, your parenting and your in-laws. What about those in-laws that are overbearing and they're trying to insert themselves into your life without you asking for their opinion.

First you, my grandmother. You and your spouse need to first make sure you're on the same page here. This means no one is to go to family for advice, help venting suggestions. Absolutely nothing. I've talked about this before. Leave family out of your personal life. As far as they're concerned, everything's peachy and things are fantastic.

Don't bring them into your personal life. It's none of their business. Once you start, they'll use that as a free pass to butt in whenever they have an opinion, if you and your spouse need guidance or help pick up a book, reach out to a therapist, a counselor, your church somewhere, and someone other than your family.

My husband and I made this rule a long time ago and we had to learn it the hard way. And it took us both some time to implement probably more me than him, but do not talk to your family about anything negative ever. People will twist things up. They gossip, they have their own agendas, their own ideas, their own opinions, drama, and.

That shit just, it turns everything you said into something completely different in their head. It's not that they're doing it intentionally again, it's just those glasses in their perception. Save you, your spouse and your children, the headache and drama, and keep any problems, struggles or negative negativity out of conversations with family at all times.

Sean: [00:26:53] No, just with family for that matter with friends, anyone. Don't talk negatively about your spouse. If you need to do it with a therapist or someone who's qualified, but not someone who's involved in your personal lives.

Jessica: [00:27:05] This one tidbit alone will remove so many problems between you and your in-laws.

Alone. Now, if you both, or one of you have already included family in the past, it's not too late to implement this. It'll take a little time for them to get the hint that their opinion is not welcome, but they will get it and it'll start to happen less than less, again, just be kind and loving about it.

Each spouse has to deal with their own family. Just, you know, say thanks for the tips, but I think we got this or, Oh yeah. That's a good idea. Think about that. Something along those lines as to not be dismissive and rude, but also not argue and agree, be passive and different in kind. Staying on the same team as your spouse.

This is always super important. Anytime people catch a glimpse of any gap between you and your spouse, they will use it to wiggle in and make that gap bigger. This means standing up for your spouse, you don't need to get loud, rude, or call names, just like I've always said. Remain kind. You have to remain undivided with your spouse.

If your spouse feels attacked, hurt, or offended them, pull them to the side or wait till later when you're alone and get a true understanding of where they're coming from and why, if you feel like your family was in the right. And your spouse was in the wrong. You do not let him know anyone catch wind of this.

That's between the two of you and it's private to everyone else. You are an undivided force that stands together, no matter what you and your spouse need to work that out as a team on the sidelines alone, being, understanding, being respectful of each other's views, hear it is super important. Yeah. To need to work together, to find a way to handle this situation and make sure it's comfortable and acceptable for the both of you.

When dealing with family and in-laws, I would suggest that unless absolutely necessary when a situation needs to be addressed, that your spouse is the one that addresses their family, not you. If you can help it, this means clear communication and understanding of your spouse's feelings and views so that when you go to bat for your spouse, you can accurately and appropriately represent them to your family.

Now if you two are having a hard time figuring this out or understanding one another, again, reach out for help from someone don't hash this out alone. You're going to make a bigger problem in your marriage. Creating more resentment from each other and causing more problems in your marriage. You don't need go into this.

Both with the want and need to do the right thing and find a solution. If you both have the frame of mind that you two are working together as a team to find a solution to fix the problem, instead of going in and into it, as I need to, when I need to be right, it's really hard to turn it into a fight. If one starts to get upset, you both need to take a breath and remind your spouse.

You're not the enemy. You're here to find a solution to the problem that works for the both of you. I then come back to it and try again, our spouse and our children, our number one priority, your mother, your father, sister, brother, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They're no longer your main concern. You're an adult now, and you have a family of your own.

This is where your responsibility and your loyalty lies. Now you must not ever forget that. The minute we put anyone before our spouse and children, we are asking for major marital problems and even a divorce. You are one with your spouse, you owe only them, your loyalty, not anyone else put the blood aside and remind your spouse.

Your spouse is the only one you fight for now, your spouse and your children is the ones that you chose. Another big no-no is don't make plans with their extended family without consulting with your spouse. Make sure they are always part of the things you do with your family and have just as much pool in the decision-making as you do.

It is not cold to make decisions without consulting your spouse. First in anything, this not only tells your spouse, you have absolutely no respect for them, but it tells the person you're making the plans with that. You have no respect or concern for your spouse, and that only makes. You look bad and shows the divide between you two, like I've said before, they'll use that to squirm their way in and create more distance.

This is one way in-laws can win in situations over your spouse, even if they don't realize they're doing it.

Sean: [00:31:29] Now, you have to remember here guys, when you chose to marry your spouse, you became a family of your own. You became one with them just as your mother and your father were one and had a family of their own.

Now you're breaking off and starting your own family. And that doesn't mean your mother and your father. Aren't still your family and your family is your family, but they also need to respect. That you have started a family of your own and that your number one priority and loyalty is not to them anymore.

My wife is exactly right. It's to your spouse and to your children. And I know that may sound a little harsh, but it's the circle of life and it's what happens. And I know one of the things that I had to do with my own mother. Was reminder of that and teach her that, that you don't get me without my wife.

We're a team. Now we are one now and it's not going to be me anymore. It's it's my wife and myself and our kids. We all come as a package. And a lot of parents, I think, especially mothers will try to assert their dominance over a spouse because they're feeling separation anxiety from their child. And because they're feeling that maybe there's someone more important in their child's life.

But it needs to be done and it was hard and it took my mom a long time, but I finally had to put my foot down. Yeah.

Jessica: [00:32:43] If you guys take anything away from this, I hope it's reminding yourself of the glasses we all wear and staying a United and undivided force with your spouse. No matter what, with those two things.

You and your spouse will win every single time in every situation you both could possibly face. Whether it's with your in-laws, your friends, your coworkers, the world, whatever. The amount of love and respect you gain from your spouse. By practicing this every day, even with them are some major building blocks to a very loving and strong marriage as a team fighting for each other, sticking together and being your spouse's army.

We'll get you guys through the toughest of times and bring you two closer together than ever before. Uh, United marriage is not a force anyone can reckon with or destroy. The two of you are now unstoppable untouchable and indestructible,

Sean: [00:33:40] and the takeaways that I want to bring up and make sure that you remember from this podcast are don't have expectations.

Try not to have expectations. It's human nature to have expectations, but they will always lead to resentments eventually. And. It takes a lot of intense self honesty to get rid of those expectations. And it takes a lot of acceptance to get rid of those expectations, but expectations will bite you in the ass every time ego you've got to let go of your ego.

If you want to get anywhere with anybody in life, you've got to let go of your ego because that too will bite you in the ass every time. And remember above all else. That you and your wife or you and your husband, you and your spouse. You're United you're one. You're on the same side. You're fighting the same battle.

You're on the same team, fricking support each other for Christ's sake. Sorry.

Jessica: [00:34:28] All right, Outlaws. I hope you have the weapons you need to take on the in-laws and family drama. I hope the power of you to hold as a United force pulls you and your family into happier times. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and join us on our social media platforms.

Next week, we are going to tackle parenting the strain. It can put on your marriage, your intimacy, and how to come together as a team. We will talk about finding parenting styles that you both agree with, how blended families can come together as a unanimous family and ways to minimize the stigma of step-parents and stuff,

Sean: [00:35:07] how to get that intimacy in without your kids barging in on you.

Jessica: [00:35:10] Oh goodness. That's never happened to us. No one ever. This is the confident marriage podcast.

Sean: [00:35:18] I am your

Jessica: [00:35:18] host. And I'm your host, Jessica. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thank you for listening

next week.