Dear Chris:

You hosted and paid for your son’s wedding, gave him a sizeable down payment for his home, gave his wife money to pay for her tuition, and this same adult son allowed his adult friend to say to you: “you  old whore”, remaining this man’s friend even though that friend never apologized to you, eventually telling you that it is your issue and “there was nothing he could do”.

Why does your son disrespect you, and to this alarming extent. I don’t know. And I am sorry that this is the case.

I have very little information of course, so I can only guess as to why he disrespects you so much. Here are three guessing possibilities:

1. He blames you for divorcing his father (even though you are very friendly with his father), he perhaps thinks you had an affair that caused the divorce (and have told that to his friend, leading to his friend expressing that sentiment in his greeting of you).

2. His father expressed to him a deep disrespect for women and he took on his father’s attitude.

3. Perhaps you expressed disrespect to your own self, putting yourself down through the years, and he took on your attitude.

Any of these apply?

anita