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INTRODUCTION
BY Dr.
Michael Tobin
It may be painful to accept but it's
true nevertheless: You don't marry a person --you marry a system.
One of the challenges of marriage is learning how to master an
essential part of that system--in- laws. In-laws come in different
types: Some are supportive and respect the marital boundaries.
Others act like your job is to serve their needs. A couple must
act from the awareness that their primary loyalty is to each other
and their new family. It takes courage to make that stand. On
the other hand, the partners must make great efforts to develop
and maintain positive relations with their respective in-laws.
In this drama, Marnie and Greg, a
young couple, married for six months and approaching their first
Christmas together, are faced with the dilemma of mastering an
in-law dilemma: Should they spend the holiday with Marnie's mother,
a widow with no children living in the same town, or should they
visit Greg's family, a few hundred miles away in Boston? Each
wants to be with his own family.
How can they resolve this conflict
without hurting anybody?
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