My Wife’s Friends & Family Want Her to Divorce

by Stephen Waldo

My Wifes Friends & Family Want Her To Divorce

What do you do when your wife’s friends & family are telling her to leave you? Here are two things you can do to help your wife see things clearly.

My wife and I have been separated for 2 months now. I am 44 years old. We are both devoted Christians with an 11 year old son and an 8 year old daughter. No infidelity by either of us. She has checked out of the marriage and has seen a lawyer, but hasn’t filed anything yet.

I do not want this divorce at all. She is unwilling to see counselors, however I am independently seeing a psychologist and my pastor for guidance.

My wife’s dad and many of her friends and family are telling her to end the marriage. Most of her support group is divorced, including her dad.

She says she can’t stop the divorce because she would lose credibility with her friends and family that have supported her decision to divorce.

How do I get her to choose this marriage over her friends and family?

Sincerely, – Chad


One of the hardest obstacles to overcome in a separation are friends and family who actively encourage divorce.

What is unique about your situation is that your wife has partially admitted that her negative friends are part of the reason why she’s hesitant to come back to the marriage. This is a good thing because her admitting this should allow you to bring this issue out in the open and address it.

Most of the time a separated wife refuses to admit that her anti-marriage friends or family have anything to do with her decision to divorce.

I have two pieces of advice for you:

Stay Consistent

Show Your Wife That The Man She Sees Now Isn’t Going Anywhere

You can’t control who your wife talks to. You can’t control what other people say to her. You can’t make her stop listening to these people who are rooting against your marriage.

What you CAN control is the type of husband you show to your wife right now.

What you CAN control is the type of marriage that your wife is throwing away by listening to her friends.

Be the man you want to be, regardless of your wife’s reaction. Then stay consistent.

What you need to do at this point is show your wife that she’s right, you are not in the same corner as her friends and family… And that’s a good thing!

  • Her friends & family are NOT considering what’s best for her kids. Show her that you DO care deeply about your kids by being the best father you can be to them right now.
  • They are NOT working to make her life better. They’re just saying what will get her in the same boat as them. Show her that you WILL work to make her life better by stepping up in the little things.
  • They are NOT prioritizing her happiness. Show her that you will be content and at peace with or without her, so that she will wonder whether she can share that happiness with you.

Be the man you want to be, regardless of your wife’s reaction to it. And then stay consistent. Remember the Trust Formula:

Time + Consistency + Trustworthiness = Trust

The Time part of the formula is important… No matter what you do, you’re in for a journey. Be consistent throughout it no matter what happens.

Conversation Tactics

Reassure Her Divorce is HER Choice

?Since you and your wife are still talking regularly, it’s worth giving you some pointers for things you can try and communicate to her.

The overarching thing you want to get across to your wife is that leaving the marriage is HER choice and nobody else’s. Get her to detach her friends’ and family’s wishes, as well as your wishes, from her decision. It is HER decision.

Here are some examples of things to try and get across to your wife in conversation:

  • “I know that I can’t control you or make you choose the marriage, but your friends and family can’t control you either. No matter what you choose, it’s your choice and nobody else’s.”
  • “It’s not them or their kids who will have to deal with the consequences of divorce; it’s us and our kids.”
  • “We’re talking about a very big life decision. I’m not telling you that you have to stay, but don’t get divorced because of your friends when it’s ME who wants to stand by your side for the rest of your life.”
  • “What are the reasons YOU want to leave besides your friends’ and family’s feelings?”
  • “Would your friends have still gotten divorced if their spouses were working as hard to save the marriage as I am?”

You don’t have to copy these examples word for word, but hopefully they’ll serve as a good starting point.

No matter how you say it, you are trying to confidently emphasize a few key points to her:

1

The choice to divorce is HERS and nobody else’s.

3

This is a decision that will affect the rest of her life. The feelings of her support group shouldn’t be a priority.

2

Her support group won’t feel the consequences of divorce.

4

While you recognize it’s her choice to leave or stay, you ARE still invested in this marriage, and that’s not going to change.

Your goal isn’t to start a big fight or argument over these points. And you shouldn’t make these points in a way that sound like begging. You don’t need to repeat yourself constantly or sound like a broken record.

Don’t press these things too hard; make your point and make it with confidence, then let it be.

Ultimately, it’s up to your wife to choose to hear you, just like it’s her choice to hear the negative influences that she’s put so much stock in now.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

If you’re reading this and your wife is being influenced by anti-marriage friends and family, it’s worth noting that usually your wife is only listening to these people in the first place because they validate the decision that SHE has already made.

In other words, the problem is never the negative influences – the problem is that your wife WANTS to listen to them. Anti-marriage friends and family are just one more justification for her decision to leave.

It’s unlikely that any conversation you have with your wife will be the thing to change her mind. Before your wife can discount the advice of her negative support network, she needs to believe there’s a reason to make a different choice. That’s where the consistency (discussed above) and the patience (discussed below) come in to play.

Be Patient & Keep Doing What You’re Doing

At 2 months in, you’ve still got a long road in front of you no matter which way things go.

  • If she ends up filing, you’ve still got a lot of time to turn it around.
  • On the other hand, if she ends up coming back, you probably won’t see it for at least a couple more months yet, even if you do everything perfectly.

This means that the single most important thing you can do right now is to be patient and stay calm. Your marriage is not going to make or break in this moment right now.

Keep moving forward & stay focused on what you can control. Trust that your wife will eventually start thinking for herself.

In the meantime, while your wife makes up her mind about the marriage, focus on yourself and your daughter. Model the type of man that you want your daughter to someday marry. Show her what it looks like to be gracious and kind towards your wife, even as she pushes you away. This is an opportunity to teach your daughter AND your wife about unconditional love with your actions and attitude towards both of them.

Whatever you do, best of luck.

Stephen Waldo

Hi! My name is Stephen. I’m the guy behind Husband Help Haven. My mission here is to help as many men as possible become the best husbands they can be, and save as many marriages as possible along the way. Even though I’m not a marriage counselor, I want to encourage men everywhere to become better husbands, fathers and leaders. Full author bio

12 comments

  • Considering that upwards of 80 percent of divorces are implemented by women, I just think that we men are too much to blame for things going wrong in marriage when many times the fault clear lies in the faulty expectation that men should fix this or that. What i dont hear is how are womens sometimes impossible fairy tale expectations to blame. My wife is showing a few of the signs of pulling away and i had been doing more than my fair share of trying to “change” when looking back i shouldnt. Why? Because unhappy middle aged married womens’ gripes are just empty excuses that they want the freedom to do what they want with no limitations. Thank the far lefts feminist movement for this fellas. All i know is once someone shows you consistently that you are an option and not their priority you should get the message loud and clear and make changes in your life not for them, but for you to be the best version of yourself. Life is too short to try to change your uncommitted wifes mind by changing your behaviors. Rather you should find someone who chearishes you without having to change the core of who you are….peace out fellas!!

  • I’ve been cheating on my wife for years and abused her emotionally. She now wants a divorce. I have 4 kids and don’t want a divorce. What should I do?

    • A
      Stephen

      I’m going to do my best not to judge here; it’s not my role. The hard truth is that there isn’t a magic answer here; you’re completely at her mercy, and the best you can do is pray and hope that it’s not too late. Don’t try to delay the divorce or to make things more difficult for her. You want to avoid trying to control her AT ALL. Respecting her choices completely, even if they bring you closer to divorce, is your only chance and is also the right thing to do. In the meantime, go to counseling and start seriously working on yourself. It would be an understatement to say that you’ve got an uphill battle, but if nothing else the changes you make can help your children avoid similar mistakes.

  • Stephen and others,
    Since I submitted my problem to you my wife had filed for divorce and she continues to be leaning on her support group to validate her every decision. This is clearly Satan at his best. I have been weak in my communications with her and what I mean by this is my getting angry by certain key words that she says to me about what she feels about me. What amazes me is how she has turned her feelings toward me completely to the negative and she denies ALL of the positive feelings and actions that we shared for over two decades. She has struggled greatly about going through with filing for the divorce, but I guess I helped her make that final leap. At this point I don’t see any outcome where we reconcile this marriage. I have put my mind into moving toward being without my family and relationship with her. She has turned to counseling and books that are helping her to continue the path that she has chosen. As far as the future of us as one, it appears very bleak. I wish all men here best of luck with your efforts.
    Chad

    • Hurts to read your hurts as I can fully relate myself. I’m sorry you’ve gone through something you have not asked for. I love my wife and want her back, but she doesn’t want the same. Satan is a liar.

  • I think the above is really bad advice if you want your wife back. These are negotiation tactics and appear as begging. Let her go, bad advice and all, and move on with your life. No matter what you say, you’re not going to change her mind, as her mind is already made up. Make an effort to separate from her, show confidence and don’t act pathetic. By doing the above, you appear to have no self-worth, which will drive her away even more. I normally agree with the advice from the Husband Help Haven, but this blog misses the mark completely.

    • I agree, a good bit of these articles are spineless responses. Stop catering to these abusive hypergamous spiteful women (girls). All you do is reinforce garbage behavior. Just man up and do you/ get a life, and mentally healthy relationships will fall into place.

    • A
      Stephen

      Thanks for the feedback. I assume that you’re mostly talking about the conversation tactics listed in the blog post as being what missed the mark, since the other two points (consistence and patience) pretty well line up with your take on what Chad should do.

      Let me first point out that Chad is in a bit of a unique situation, because his wife has openly admitted her friends and family are a big reason she feels like she can’t come back. This does not usually happen… Usually, as you said, your wife has already made up her mind and seeks out negative influences to validate her decision. In those cases, and even in this case, once the conversation tactics prove ineffective, I wholeheartedly encourage The Mystery Man approach (build your own life, assume she’s gone, move on and if she changes her mind, fine).

      However, Chad’s wife seems to be having a unique internal struggle, and one of the obstacles in that struggle is the feelings of her support network. The conversation tactics listed are intended to help Chad (and others who may be in a similar spot) to at the very least get their wayward wife to own her decision.

      You’re absolutely right – it is unlikely that these conversation tactics change much about his wife’s decision. That’s why I tell Chad not to be a broken record – make your point and move on; it’s up to her to hear it. But since Chad is still talking to his wife regularly, having some advice for navigating those conversations seems helpful.

      The main things to do are to stick with the core 3+1 Separation Strategy. Focus on what you can control, work on becoming the man you want to be and build a life for yourself, then give your wife opportunities to see the man you’ve worked to become. The conversation tactics are sandwiched between the two more important points: (A) stay consistent and (B) be patient.

      Hopefully this clears up where the above advice was coming from. Thanks again for the feedback!

      • A
        Stephen

        I’ve decided to go ahead and add the above clarification into the main post. Hopefully that will help future readers understand the context and priority of the advice given in the post.

  • Raul Barrera

    Today I was delivered a huge blow. After ordering you book last Friday and read it all weekend before returning home. reading the book I was confident I was going to do extremely well. That’ sunday evening she decides to make a social media outlet page. I still fell asleep fine knowing the 3+1 system. Then she delivers a blow I want to get my own phone. I know you monitor my calls emails and have people follow me. I was disappointed disgusted. I let her know we really must start to have trust and better faith in all this. We are always peeling the scab off each other. She said what I do or don’t do on my time is my personal business not yours. How do I gain my traction again. You said take it like liquids not one two days the same
    Thank you.

    • StevenmeD

      Many thanks for helping people find the info they need. Great stuff as usual. Keep up the good work!!!

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