Family Feud

Tension has been building within my family for a while. My boyfriend, Mr. Excitement, and his mother do not have a smooth relationship. It has always been a skirmish of giving and withholding affection. There is truly a deep love shared between the two of them, but it is fiercely guarded and rarely shown.

Recently their skirmish has given way to an all out war. It has been a week now and the stalemate hasn’t broken. Excitement has apologized and his apologies have gone unanswered. He’s reached out in phone calls and texts and they are ignored. And now his mother is even giving me the silent treatment.

How can people, professed adults, be so childish? I have seen this behavior many times within my life. With two men, words are exchanged, it comes to blows and then they shake hands and shake it off. Between women, the claws come out and they begin to sabotage one another’s characters within their social circles until they finally talk to one another, cry it out and it’s all forgiven. But when these catty situations arise between the sexes, with two people with a whole lifetime of issues, how does one mend the rift?

I’d like to drag the both of them in by their little ears and sit them down in time-out until they are both ready to hug and make-up, but they’re not children and I’m not their mother. I have to stand back and wait it out. I just wonder how long I will have to wait.