MrsBrightside
New member
Hello!
Some of you may remember my Meta-issues with Red not really being good with boundaries and having a lot of insecurities outbursts that resulted in me asking for no more visits in our (mine and Farmer's) home.
I am finally feeling as if things are progressing well, with a few caveats, but I am holding my own instead of caving to guilt. Red initially was very upset about the idea, and again thought I disliked her and didn't want her around. I would say the first month was the hardest. A few weeks ago Farmer had his first visit with her solo, and I had hoped that her having dedicated time with him would help. Farmer admitted she is tolerating it, but she still is sad she is no longer going to be in our home.
It does grate on me somewhat that she feels being *here* is so important to validating her relationship with Farmer. This is where I feel is the key to her really stepping over boundaries (she did so once recently with texting me in the middle of the night over needing to know about what we did for Farmer's birthday even though I thought he had told her) and needing to be very involved in our lives/relationship, while also minimizing my role in her life (her friends don't know about me and she doesn't want them too, but she expects our friends to know about her and be friends with her).
Recently, Red lost her job. It was very upsetting for her, even though she disliked where she worked and was working a lot less over the past couple months. Farmer was very good with helping her stay together during the crisis and encouraged her to apply for jobs and social assistance. She ended up getting temporary work... here, in our city... on the same job I am currently working. This threw up my defenses immediately, because as much as she would not be staying in our home, I felt like this was a loophole she had discovered to be here despite knowing I needed space. I reiterated with Farmer my concerns, and that I was worried she would try to test the boundaries more if she were around and try to convince him to let her visit our home, and that I felt she perhaps wanted to move and live here full time to be closer to him and this was a good chance to show him what that could be like. He honestly didn't think she would want to move here and was certain it was temporary and that she only took a job here because it was available immediately.
In any case, she ended up not getting as many days of work here as she thought, and it ended up being a moot point. She is going to have a new job in her own city starting sometime next week, though she may still be up here occasionally for work until the project is over. Farmer assured me that this would not result in me getting less time with him than usual, though he made a good point that seeing her once a week while she was in town would mean he wouldn't have to go away one weekend a month instead and that seemed a pretty fair compromise.
But given that I thought Red was going to be around for the next six weeks, I did ask Farmer if he thought it would be beneficial if I explained why I need space/no visits to her since she seemed really confused as to why it happened. His answer really helped me:
Him: Well... What would your goal be in explaining that to her?
Me: So she can understand my feelings and know that I don't dislike her?
Him: Well, her thinking you dislike her is a product of her anxiety and she is going to probably think that regardless of what you do. It isn't your job to explain that away.
Me: Oh... true.
Him: Also if you try to explain to her why you don't want visits right now then she is going to take that as hope; hope that she can eventually have visits back if she can just 'get around' those issues.
Me: So it's better to be firm and not explain so she has nothing to try and push against?
Him: Yeah basically.
Farmer also is happy with the arrangement as is (with no visits and him going to see her one weekend a month + seeing her when he is up for work), and understands my reasoning. I think Red, being mono, sees our life together and wants that too (we know this because she has said as much). She just doesn't see any other way of having it unless she is 'involved' in our relationship in whatever way she can; which is why being in our home is so important to her. But she can't keep inserting herself in our relationship to ease her insecurities and feel like she can have the relationship escalator after all. I told Farmer I thought the space might give her an opportunity to not focus so much on what he and I have, so that they can both explore the special thing they have together, and develop that on it's own merit. And I would get my much-needed space. He agreed with that, and I really hope that it does help in that regard.
I am also going to be more firm in keeping any interactions with me and Red only about each other or friend-type things, and not so much discussing our relationship with Farmer in any way, and directing any questions she has about it to him instead.
I want to thank everyone for their advice here, it really helped me.
I am not perfect at being firm with my boundaries yet, but I feel like it has curbed Red's behaviour with me a LOT since I have made that decision and we get along better (at least from what I can tell on my end) as a result.
Some of you may remember my Meta-issues with Red not really being good with boundaries and having a lot of insecurities outbursts that resulted in me asking for no more visits in our (mine and Farmer's) home.
I am finally feeling as if things are progressing well, with a few caveats, but I am holding my own instead of caving to guilt. Red initially was very upset about the idea, and again thought I disliked her and didn't want her around. I would say the first month was the hardest. A few weeks ago Farmer had his first visit with her solo, and I had hoped that her having dedicated time with him would help. Farmer admitted she is tolerating it, but she still is sad she is no longer going to be in our home.
It does grate on me somewhat that she feels being *here* is so important to validating her relationship with Farmer. This is where I feel is the key to her really stepping over boundaries (she did so once recently with texting me in the middle of the night over needing to know about what we did for Farmer's birthday even though I thought he had told her) and needing to be very involved in our lives/relationship, while also minimizing my role in her life (her friends don't know about me and she doesn't want them too, but she expects our friends to know about her and be friends with her).
Recently, Red lost her job. It was very upsetting for her, even though she disliked where she worked and was working a lot less over the past couple months. Farmer was very good with helping her stay together during the crisis and encouraged her to apply for jobs and social assistance. She ended up getting temporary work... here, in our city... on the same job I am currently working. This threw up my defenses immediately, because as much as she would not be staying in our home, I felt like this was a loophole she had discovered to be here despite knowing I needed space. I reiterated with Farmer my concerns, and that I was worried she would try to test the boundaries more if she were around and try to convince him to let her visit our home, and that I felt she perhaps wanted to move and live here full time to be closer to him and this was a good chance to show him what that could be like. He honestly didn't think she would want to move here and was certain it was temporary and that she only took a job here because it was available immediately.
In any case, she ended up not getting as many days of work here as she thought, and it ended up being a moot point. She is going to have a new job in her own city starting sometime next week, though she may still be up here occasionally for work until the project is over. Farmer assured me that this would not result in me getting less time with him than usual, though he made a good point that seeing her once a week while she was in town would mean he wouldn't have to go away one weekend a month instead and that seemed a pretty fair compromise.
But given that I thought Red was going to be around for the next six weeks, I did ask Farmer if he thought it would be beneficial if I explained why I need space/no visits to her since she seemed really confused as to why it happened. His answer really helped me:
Him: Well... What would your goal be in explaining that to her?
Me: So she can understand my feelings and know that I don't dislike her?
Him: Well, her thinking you dislike her is a product of her anxiety and she is going to probably think that regardless of what you do. It isn't your job to explain that away.
Me: Oh... true.
Him: Also if you try to explain to her why you don't want visits right now then she is going to take that as hope; hope that she can eventually have visits back if she can just 'get around' those issues.
Me: So it's better to be firm and not explain so she has nothing to try and push against?
Him: Yeah basically.
Farmer also is happy with the arrangement as is (with no visits and him going to see her one weekend a month + seeing her when he is up for work), and understands my reasoning. I think Red, being mono, sees our life together and wants that too (we know this because she has said as much). She just doesn't see any other way of having it unless she is 'involved' in our relationship in whatever way she can; which is why being in our home is so important to her. But she can't keep inserting herself in our relationship to ease her insecurities and feel like she can have the relationship escalator after all. I told Farmer I thought the space might give her an opportunity to not focus so much on what he and I have, so that they can both explore the special thing they have together, and develop that on it's own merit. And I would get my much-needed space. He agreed with that, and I really hope that it does help in that regard.
I am also going to be more firm in keeping any interactions with me and Red only about each other or friend-type things, and not so much discussing our relationship with Farmer in any way, and directing any questions she has about it to him instead.
I want to thank everyone for their advice here, it really helped me.