My father has always been difficult and became thoroughly objectionable when I got married. He used to call our first rented flat ‘pathetically cramped’ and told my husband, who is an academic, to his face that he didn’t earn enough money.
He was just as bad with our three children when they were small, challenging them with ridiculous questions that were far too complex for their age and then gloating when they didn’t know the answers. We cut down the amount of time we saw him, but stayed in contact because of my poor mother who doesn’t dare contradict him.
He’s become increasingly uninhibited as he’s aged and talks loudly and over anyone else who may want to contribute to the conversation. It’s made him a huge embarrassment but our children have always behaved politely not least because I encouraged them to say they had to go out or study so they weren’t with us for long. Our oldest child is getting married in the summer and none of us want to have my father at the wedding. I know he will want to make a speech and generally misbehave which could ruin the occasion for our daughter. The problem is can we invite my mother but not him and how could we persuade her to come on her own?
