: I have been close to my sister for most of my adult life. When my daughter Patricia was born, my sister created the nickname “Patzilla.” I told her I didn’t like the name, and she stopped saying it — for a while.
Now she’s using it again, and I’m deeply hurt by this. The association with a monster is not one I want my child to have for herself, and it comes across as mean. Since my first expression of not liking this is being ignored, I’m not sure how to proceed.
: Your sister has a peculiar sense of humor. There are sweet nicknames, and “Patzilla” isn’t one of them. In fact, it’s rather mean and sinister.
How to proceed would be to not expose your child to anyone who ridicules her or calls her a name you don’t want her to have. : When my husband and I were dating 15 years ago, he would occasionally get angry and stalk off or bust a bag of chips, but after I gave him time alone, he’d be back like nothing happened. He always said that episodes such as this were something he was “working on.
” After we had children, the incidents continued occasionally. I thought it was because he worked hard, so as a stay-at-home-mom, I just gulped, gave him his space, and he would eventually get back to normal. I continued walking on eggshells and tried diligently to not make him angry again.
Embarrassingly, my son’s preschool teacher asked one time if everything was OK because my son mentioned that his daddy yelled at his mommy a lot. My husband lost his job .
