Boundary Or Ultimatum? (How To Tell The Difference)

Genevieve has a golden retriever named Biscuit, who every Sunday when Genevieve takes Biscuit to her in-law's house for dinner, sleeps underneath the dinner table.

He was there again on Sunday when Genevieve's mother-in-law made the comment.

You might be familiar with the flavor of it.

The one how Genevieve's mother-in-law just doesn't understand why Genevieve can't relax and enjoy family time.

Now, Genevieve has been running her own business for years now, and some version of this comment keeps coming up no matter how many times Genevieve apologizes, even though there might be an emergency that she might need to deal with sometimes.

Genevieve does her best to navigate a really complex business that can demand a lot of her time against the very important priority of family and quality time.

But there are moments in time where it can interfere, either because of stress or because she needs to respond to an urgent message.

And she's counted maybe 11 different versions of this same comment or sentence just over the last six months.

And every comment lands in the same place for her.

It's that she's the problem.

not the environment she's in, not the situation and not the circumstances.

It's Genevieve.

Genevieve looked at her husband when her mother-in-law said something, but he looked at his plate and nobody said anything.

So Genevieve, her husband, and Biscuit all drove home together in silence.

They sat down on the edge of the bed and she said the sentence that she had been reprimanded thinking about and mulling over and working herself into a frenzy about all night, which is either you figure out why you can't have my back in that house.

And it's biscuit that seems to be there for me more than anyone else, or We go and get help.

It could be counseling, coaching, therapy.

I don't care what it's called.

I am done pretending that this is fine.

It's taken us six years to get to that sentence.