Why is Joe acting this way? Is there something I am doing wrong?
Dr. Dobson: I'm going to speak very directly to you, although I understand the pain that you're going through. There is no greater heartache in life than to be rejected by the one you love. But by courage and determination, you will survive the crisis that has beset your home.
With that, let me say that the compulsion that is driving you to plead for Joe's attention and love is wrecking your last glimmer of hope for reconciliation. By groveling before him, you are stripping yourself of all dignity and respect. Those two attitudes are critical ingredients in any stable and fulfilling relationship, and you are systematically destroying them.
This is the message you are conveying inadvertently: ``Oh, Joe, I need you so badly. I can't make it without you. I spend my days waiting for you to call and am crushed when the phone doesn't ring. Won't you please, please let me talk to you occasionally? I'll take you any way I can have you - even if you want to walk all over me. I am desperate without you.''
This is a classic panic reaction, and it is leading you to appease your husband. Appeasement virtually never is successful in human relationships. In fact, it often leads directly to war, whether between husbands and wives or between antagonistic nations. Attempts by one side to ``buy off'' an aggressor or offender may seem like proposals of peace, but in most cases they merely precipitate further insult and conflict.
Nothing destroys a romantic relationship more quickly than for a person to throw himself or herself, weeping and clinging, on the back of the cool partner to beg for mercy. That makes the wayward spouse even more anxious to escape from the leech that threatens to suck his life's blood. He may pity the wounded partner and wish that things were different, but he rarely can bring himself to love again under those circumstances.
You need to understand that Joe's withdrawal from the relationship is directly linked to his quest for freedom. He is feeling suffocated and wants to escape from the marriage. By humiliating yourself and clinging to his ankles each time you meet, you increase his desire to get away. The more he struggles to gain his freedom, the more he feels your clutches around him. It becomes a vicious cycle.
Is all child abuse illegal?
Question: Are all forms of child abuse illegal?
Dr. Dobson: Not in any practical sense. Within certain limits it is not illegal to ignore a child or raise him or her without love. Nor is it against the law to ridicule and humiliate a boy or girl. Those forms of rejection may be more harmful even than some forms of physical abuse, but they are tougher to prove and usually are not prosecutable.
James Dobson is the president of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of the home. Write to him in care of The Herald-Mail Co., P.O. Box 439, Hagerstown, Md. 21741.
