A few months ago during one of our evening walks, Tom told me a really sad story that involved Robert...
Every day when he gets home from school, Robert must feed his turtle Dale. One afternoon, apparently Faye felt it was a good idea to come inside the house and watch Robert feed his turtle before they left for her house. As they were walking down the basement stairs to get to Dale's tank, Robert made it halfway down before he started crying hysterically. Robert wouldn't tell Faye or Tom's mother what was wrong, only that he wanted to go home to her house. And so they left.
Two days later, when Robert was back at Tom's house, Tom sat down with Robert to ask him if everything was alright. He asked what had happened the afternoon he started crying when his mother wanted to help him feed the turtle. Instead of shrugging and saying "I don't know" like he usually does, he told Tom immediately about what had upset him that afternoon. He told him about how he was afraid how his mom would react if she saw the pictures of me sitting on the table next to Dale's tank. He knows how much the mere idea of me upsets her, so he was afraid that she was going to get mad if she noticed the pictures there. Tom told Robert that if he was so concerned about his mother's feelings, that he could do whatever he wanted with the pictures.
Later that evening, Tom found the pictures sitting on his bed. He asked Robert why he decided to just put them on his bed, when he could have ripped them up or thrown them away. Robert said he didn't have a problem with me or the pictures, but he didn't want his mother to get mad....
The weekend Tom and I told everyone about our engagement, Tom decided it was a good idea to tell Faye as well. I was quite upset at him when I found out he told her, because our own parents are still getting over the shock, I didn't think we could handle dealing with her at the same time. For the first week or so, things were quiet. I didn't receive any ridiculous text messages or threatening phone calls from her like I was expecting. Instead, her attack came completely by surprise...
Last Thursday, after Robert got home from school, Tom started talking to him about some of the houses we had looked at earlier in the day. Tom asked Robert how he felt about getting a new house and having a room of his own that he could decorate any way he wanted (within reason, of course.) As soon as Tom started asking him about this, Robert became incredibly upset by it. At first, he wouldn't tell Tom what was wrong, but eventually he told his father what was bothering him.
Unfortunately, Faye thought it was a good idea to threaten her own seven year old son. She informed him that if she ever found out that he spent time with me, she would make sure she never saw his father again.
I was in complete shock when I heard that she did that to her own son. I couldn't believe that someone who supposedly cares so much about her son's well-being would put him in such a horrible situation like that. How much emotional stress and abuse does she have to put him through before she realizes she certainly isn't helping the situation?
As if the situation wasn't bad enough already, Tom's parents didn't help one bit. When Tom told his mother what Faye had said to Robert, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Well, what did you do to piss her off?" Not "I can't believe she would say something like that to him," or, "I'll have to say something to her about it." Instead, "What did you do to piss her off?" And these are Tom's parents we're talking about here. At this point, his parents have made it perfectly clear they do not want Tom to be with me, nor do they want him to get married. Ever. I get the feeling that they want him to stay single and miserable for the rest of his life just so it doesn't complicate things when it comes to raising Robert. For the rest of his life, Tom is supposed to just bow down to what ever insane whim Faye has at the moment, and be there to pick up the pieces and help Robert get through it all. Just because she was emotionally abused by her parents all her life, doesn't mean that she should carry on that tradition with her treatment towards Robert.
It is inconceivable that appeasing a psycho such as Faye is more important to these people than standing behind their own son and helping him find the happiness he deserves.
It certainly wouldn't be surprising if someone called child services on Faye in the near future if this kind of behavior persists.