A friend of mine made me laugh when he related this little exchange that he had had with his wife recently.

His wife had taken a comment that he had made about “her mother having overreacting to the risk of snow” as a slur on her mother so she had retaliated by saying: “Well if I told Your Mother that I had been to the Moon, she would say that she had been to Mars”

I laughed at the exchange because it reminded me of a pact that I had made with my wife many years ago in respect of never bringing into our arguments disparaging remarks about our respective parents.

There was a time when in the midst of a disagreement and perhaps at the point where the argument was being lost, the easiest thing to do would be to reach out for the old “well Your Mother……” followed by a return of “Don’t lecture me about My Mother…. Your Mother.…….”

Over the years I have become extremely fond on my mother-in-law and my wife’s relationship with my mother is close even though I am sure that there have been occasions when the pact has been hard to keep!.

On the occasions when we are respectively irritated by them, we keep to our pact because we both know that if I said her mother should move to the Moon, my wife would say well you’re mother should move to Mars! (pointless!)

Go on – make a pact today to leave the family out of your arguments!

My next blog will be: Feeling Low

William Defoe