All too familiar

I do like the way people are annotating the serialised version of Samuel Pepys' diary as if they were posting comments on a 'live' personal blog like Waiter Rant.

It is week commencing Monday 10th August 1663 and Elizabeth has just returned from a stay with his father John at Brampton. Sam is being forced to deal with parent-spouse stand-offs, a situation I am no stranger to.

Patricia writes: "Oh Sam, this all sounds too familiar: caught between your wife and your parents—my husband has been there many times—and your loyalties divided. Trust me, you may have “entertained her with great content”, but sex won’t solve this problem. You’ve got to side with your wife, she’s the one that can make you the most miserable if you don’t. Genesis 2:24 “That is why a man will leave his father and his mother and he must stick to his wife and they must become one flesh.”

Andy adds: "One of the awful truths of marriage comes when your parent is old and frail and to take him or her in would wreck your marriage: sometimes a man really does have to choose between his wife and his parent."