Chrisbow22
As a young man, I had two relationships like that. In that the father decided to take an active interest in the relationship. With disastrous affects.
The first situation destroyed the relationship completely. She broke it off with me because I decided to ignore what he was doing and just center in on her. Because I didn't stand up to him. Apparently he had been doing this kind of thing for some time. After she left me, she rebelled against him completely and married someone she knew he didn't like. That marriage ended in divorce, which was only natural I guess, and her with two kids to feed, on her own because he disowned her. The last I heard of her, she had remarried a well to do and they were doing well without him. The worst part is that so far as I know father and daughter aren't on speaking terms to the present day. That is indeed a loss for both in my opinion because neither are really bad people to warrant such a relationship between themselves.
The second situation was a situation where we both were older and wiser and the father was trying to force the relationship along faster than she or I desired. We were heading in the right direction and probably would have married eventually. But the effect of his constant pushing affected her and she began to push with him. I told her that four months into the relationship was too soon to get married, and she disagreed. The next thing I knew she was in a relationship with another man and I was the last to know. They married in two months time and it also ended in divorce and a child. At least in this case she had some support from her parents so that she didn't have to raise the child alone. But the last I heard of this girl was that she had become embittered against men and hadn't remarried. I can only hope she outgrew that attitude because all in all she would make someone a fine wife.
What I learned from these two situations was caution in relation to the girl's father. After those two experiences the first thing I looked for was the father's interference. Doesn't take long to see where he's at, if he's in the picture at all. And I began to look at the relationships, married and unmarried, of my friends and the effect it had on their relationships. The bible says that the man and woman are to leave their parents and cleave to one another. I learned that if the father or mother is of the interfering kind before marriage, and I don't mean friendly advice when desired, they will be so after one is married. That's the red flag I learned about.
When I finally married, it was to someone whose parents didn't interfere. But my in laws and I were the best of friends before they eventually passed on. And my wife and my parents the same. We were fortunate to both to have learned some wisdom by our experiences prior to meeting one another. We were both in our thirties when we married and have been quite happy ever sense in our selves and as a family.
FC
