Dear B and E’s Mom:

My father remarried. He left “home” when I was too young to remember him being there except for one incident and it wasn’t a pleasant one. I didn’t hate his next wife. She was quite nice to me, never mistreated me or kept me out of their apartment when I visited or stayed for a few days (I never lived with them).

I do have experience with “extreme distaste (hate” though and it doesn’t go away by itself. It is not much different from hating a particular food as a child- you keep hating it into adulthood. It is an automatic reaction.

Willingness on both parties to attend psychotherapy together can make the change, but without that, just letting time pass by, or not addressing the issue thoroughly, I don’t see much hope for a spontaneous change.

anita