I’m Miyuki, living with my husband Shinji and our daughter Akane, a 9th grader. My in-laws live nearby, along with Shinji’s sister Honoka, her husband, and their 12th-grade son, Taichi. One day, Taichi came over and took it upon himself to “finish” the jigsaw puzzle Akane had been working so hard on. Akane, who had always kept her feelings bottled up, finally snapped. But the in-laws expect her to just suck it up like it’s no big deal. That’s when I decided: I’m setting Akane free from this toxic dynamic.
If we’re talking about right and wrong, Taichi is the one who messed up by touching that puzzle. Akane isn’t some servant who has to mindlessly obey whatever people say. Taichi seems to have this “what’s yours is mine” mentality, and it should have been the in-laws’ or Honoka’s job to teach him that’s not okay.
But my mother-in-law, Honoka, and even my own husband are acting like Akane is the problem for getting angry. If they’re going to keep forcing her to just “deal with it,” then we don’t need this relationship. And if my husband won’t stand up for his own daughter, I don’t need him either.