My husband always praises and compliments his sister-in-law like she is the most perfect human being. Even when she is not around, he talks about her. It makes me feel awful compared to her. One day, I taught him a lesson that nearly made him cry.
My husband, Jerry, and I have been married for almost four years. We have two beautiful children, and while our lives have been busy and chaotic, we’ve managed to keep our relationship strong.
Parents with their two kids outdoors | Source: FreePik
Besides the occasional arguments, there is one thing Jerry does that annoys me. I don’t know if my husband does this on purpose or if just has a low EQ, but he knows that it bothers me yet he still does it.
A woman annoyed at a man | Source: Pexels
He thinks the sun shines out of his sister-in-law’s bottom. He sees her as a goddess, the embodiment of perfection. Nothing she says or does is wrong. Whenever we visit her, Jerry talks about her for three to four days afterward like he is in a trance. He compliments LITERALLY EVERYTHING she does.
One would think he was cheating, but I am sure he is not. They don’t even talk besides the times we all get together. Is he in love with her? I have no idea, but he is definitely insensitive towards my feelings.
A man in admiration | Source: FreePik
His sister-in-law, Grace, is married to Jerry’s brother, Martin. She’s always been the picture-perfect homemaker: three kids, an immaculate house, homemade meals. She somehow always looks put together. She makes motherhood seem so easy.
I’ve always admired her but never felt the need to compete. However, Jerry’s constant praise of her started to wear me down. One of our recent visits got the best of me, so I decided to give my husband a taste of his own medicine.
A woman annoyed | Source: FreePik
We visited last weekend to see their new baby. I swear he was paying more attention to her and the baby than he ever did to me or any of our children. He complimented everything about her, from how she looked to how clean the house was to the delicious food.
A woman cleaning the house | Source: Pexels
“Wow, Grace! No one would ever think you had just given birth. You look incredible!” he said as we entered their home.
He even praised how she made the bread and how she managed to recall our favorite dishes and desserts. “You are a superwoman,” he said. “Definitely limited edition.” I literally had it with him and said “enough” a couple of times, but he just ignored me. Meanwhile, Grace just giggled and welcomed the compliments.
A woman baking | Source: Pexels
At one point, she noticed that I was no longer comfortable with Jerry’s admiration. She would try to instead compliment me, but it was like my husband heard nothing.
Even when we arrived home, the praising continued. “Honey, isn’t it amazing how Grace can manage three kids and keep their home so neat and clean? What does that woman take?!” I tried to change the topic several times and even showed him I was annoyed. Still, Jerry kept going on as if he couldn’t take a hint.
A man talking to a woman | Source: FreePik
I had enough. So, yesterday, when we went to his sister-in-law’s again, I decided to turn the tables. As soon as we arrived, I started laying it on thick. We had a barbecue on their patio and Martin was behind the grilling. “Isn’t Martin amazing?” I said to Jerry’s sister-in-law. “He helps out so much and hasn’t succumbed to the dad bod yet. How incredible.”
A woman smiling at a man | Source: FreePik
My husband looked at me, startled, while his sister-in-law’s eyes widened. But I wasn’t done. “He is so fit in his 40s!” True enough, Martin was in shape and regularly went to the gym. He also watched what he ate.
I continued, ignoring the increasingly tense atmosphere. As we were about to go home, I noticed their new patio decor and added it to my list of compliments. “Did you build those, Martin?” I asked. “Wow, you have golden hands. Jerry can’t even screw in a light bulb,” I quipped.
Home patio decor | Source: Pexels
My brother-in-law, Martin, looked content receiving the compliments, smiling modestly. But his wife, Grace, and my husband, Jerry, visibly looked awkward. Jerry’s face turned red, and he started fidgeting.
When I mentioned how great Martin’s hair was, Jerry, who had hair problems and was slowly becoming bald, suddenly ran to our car.
An upset man | Source: FreePik
I excused myself and went after him. I found him in our car, nearly crying. “Okay, I got it,” he said. “My brother is better than me in everything, so why did you marry me then?”
Jerry went on to say that he has always been compared to his brother. However, hearing it from me made it sting even more. He went on to accuse me of being in love with his brother, and I just laughed.
A couple fighting in the car | Source: Pexels
I took a deep breath and replied calmly, “I just did the same thing you’ve been doing to me for the last few years.”
“What do you mean?” he replied.
“I mean, you always praise Grace in front of my face. You’re so obsessed with that you talk about her even when we’re no longer in their home. You make her seem like a God! Maybe YOU are in love with her!”
A couple fighting in the car | Source: Pexels
He was silent for a moment, then drove home suddenly. He was quiet for the rest of the evening and slept much earlier than usual.
A man in tears | Source: Pexels
The next morning, he came to me with flowers and an apology. “I’m so sorry, Penelope,” he began. “I appreciated Grace’s housekeeping skills because it was hard for me to manage work and house chores. I wasn’t complimenting her in comparison to you. I was complimenting her in comparison to ME.”
A man holding a bouquet of roses | Source: FreePik
He added, “I have been feeling like a lousy husband when it comes to household work, and I just wish I could be more like her. But I hadn’t realized how my words affected you. I promise to become a better husband and pay you more attention.”
I looked at him, holding the bouquet, his eyes filled with remorse and tears about to fall. Part of me wanted to believe him, to forgive and move on. But another part of me was still hurt, still stinging from the months of feeling second best.
A thinking woman | Source: FreePik
The next few weeks were a mixture of cautious hope and lingering doubt. Jerry started making small changes. He was helping more around the house, planning surprise date nights, and most importantly, expressing genuine appreciation for everything I did.
Maybe everything he said was true, but the fact that my husband felt that way meant I did something or didn’t do something. Was I lacking in making him feel appreciated? Was he just that insensitive to my feelings?
Unlike Jerry, another husband has been making his wife feel wonderful. At 50, he began to change into the man he was when she fell in love.
My Husband Turned 50 and He Suddenly Became the Man I Married
My husband, Chris, and I have been married for over twenty years. He has always been a good man and a wonderful father to our kids. In the early days, he was incredibly affectionate, and couldn’t keep his hands off me. We had this electric chemistry that I thought would never fade.
A couple enjoying time on the internet | Source: Pexels
But, after the kids came along, things started to change. The affection, the romance, and even the playful flirting that we once had, all began to fade away. It got to the point where I felt like we were just roommates. I read about couples losing intimacy and romance after having children, but I didn’t think it would happen to me.
A woman on her laptop and her family sleeping on the bed | Source: Pexels
Then, two months ago, something completely unexpected happened. Out of the blue, Chris asked me if I wanted to go away for the weekend, just the two of us. It was such a shock that I almost didn’t believe it at first. We hadn’t done something like that in years. But I agreed, hoping it would rekindle some of what we had lost.
A couple sitting by the beach | Source: Pexels
When we got back home, his new attitude continued. He started losing weight and getting more toned. He looked better than he did when we got married, and I found it difficult to keep my hands off him. I couldn’t help but wonder what had caused this sudden transformation.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
This Girl Was ‘Molested’ by Babysitter as a Child — Now This 90s Icon Lives Alone with 5 Dogs on Her Farm
“I hope you die!” she told her former babysitter.
Her first wedding took place on the beach.
She thinks her new look is “a little rebellious.”
Despite her humble birth on July 1, 1967, in Ladysmith, British Columbia, to a waitress and jack-of-all-trades, the brunette in the photo’s birth was reported in a newspaper. She was the first centennial baby.
She went on to have an extraordinary life sparked by another instance of being in the right place at the right time. However, she first had to survive a traumatic childhood of violence and abuse.
Her parents were 17 and 19 when they had her and still went out occasionally. Somewhere between the ages of four and eight, she had a female babysitter who molested her for around a year.
The babysitter “sexualized” the girl at a very young age, making her play inappropriate games. One day, the caretaker told her because she is a “bad girl,” Santa Claus would not visit her that year.
“I ran after her in tears, calling her a liar… and clumsily stabbed her with a candy-cane-striped pen in her chest,” she penned in her memoir. “‘I hope you die!’ I screamed through tears.”
The female predator died in a car accident following her graduation not long after. On hearing the news, the girl came to believe it was her doing, that she had some extraordinary power. She carried this with her for her “entire young life,” eventually confiding in her mom and dad.
Her parent’s volatile relationship would also cause her to act out. Once, when the couple was fighting, she tried to divert attention away from it by telling her younger brother to hide while she convinced the town that he was missing.
Her father would dole out cruel punishments. When she went against his wishes to have her kittens in the house, he placed them in a paper bag and drowned them in the ocean. “I felt like I died that night, too,” she remembers.
Between ages 12 and 14, she was sexually assaulted twice, and a boyfriend kicked her out of a moving car. She once stopped her father from assaulting her mom further by punching him.
The young brunette became known as “Blue Zone Girl” when she was spotted on a jumbotron at a football game, but she would soon be renowned worldwide by her real name, Pamela Anderson.
A beer company scouted her as a spokesmodel, leading to a Playboy shoot. A “Home Improvement” role brought her into the mainstream, but she became a superstar portraying CJ on “Baywatch.”
Her whirlwind romance with drummer Tommy Lee crescendoed into a wedding on the beach in Cancun, Mexico, in 1995, where she wore a white string bikini and he was in trunks. The couple had two children, Dylan Jagger and Brandon Thomas.
The footage they made during their honeymoon was stolen and sold as one of the first sex tapes of the internet era. The actress has never watched the tape but has felt its effects. She wrote how it “ruined lives,” starting with their relationship.
Lee was jailed for four months after he was found guilty of spousal abuse, and they divorced in 1998. She filed for full custody of the children in 2012, claiming that he was emotionally and physically abusive towards them.
Anderson has experienced a resurgence in her career. She has taken back the narrative surrounding her crafted by the media with a memoir, “Love, Pamela,” and participating in the companion Netflix documentary.
Returning to her coastal hometown of Ladysmith, Anderson found a “healing space” with its “crazy calmness.” With limited paparazzi on the island, she feels protected. She lives alone with her five dogs.
“I live a more romantic life now that I’m alone than I did in relationships,” Anderson said of the home she made in her grandparent’s old farmhouse.
The humanitarian runs through the waves on the beach adjoined to her property year-round. When not working, she keeps busy in the 15,000-square-foot vegetable and rose garden and has taken up pottery. “I’m very crafty. I didn’t realize,” she said.
In an interview with People in January 2023, she conceded that she would like to have someone to share her life but that it tended to be a case of her catering to her partner’s needs. After Lee, she wed Kid Rock and married Rick Salomon twice (one of which was annulled).
Her most recent marriage to Dan Hayhurst lasted only a few months and ended in 2021. The “V.I.P.” star has learned that she does not need a man to bring her roses:
“I’ve just planted a hundred rose bushes. I can get them any time I want — and they’re my favorite roses.”
She told Elle in August 2023 that the early morning hours were her favorite time. Anderson spends this time writing a newsletter, though she quipped she does this to distract herself from writing long, rambling emails to her sons.
Just as gardening and writing in the mornings replaced the party lifestyle she enjoyed at the height of her fame, so has her signature beauty look morphed into something else.
She was known for big blond hair, thin brows, and heavy eye makeup with tiny outfits that were, by her own account, “wild and uninhibited.” Anderson added:
“I don’t know if it was a defense mechanism or what. I just thought, ‘I’m going to have fun.’”
Over the past few years, she has been sporting a more stripped-down beauty look, sometimes looking like she is not wearing makeup. Following the death of her makeup artist, Alexis Vogel, she started taking a new approach. She explained:
“She was the best. And since then, I just felt, without Alexis, it’s just better for me not to wear makeup.”
The star might have turned her back on the signature look, but a new generation of people have rediscovered her Y2K style and #Pamcore trends frequently on TikTok.
The animal lover contends that her beauty update is “freeing, and fun, and a little rebellious too.” When she looks in the mirror, she feels “rooted for.” Pamela Anderson says she is in a good place.
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