What is the purpose of a marriage? If my husband and I are happy together, and I decide to never see his family while he sees them, is that OK? Is that normal? I sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with me, because I just cannot like my in-laws, I don't want to spend time with them, I don't want to know them, and any efforts I make always seem to go down the drain or backfire. Does this make me a bad person for wanting to avoid them completely, with all the feelings of inadequacy that I feel when communicating with them? Am I a coward or just rationing for peace of mind?

Do other people here also feel the same? I just don't want to feel like a bad person for not wanting anything to do with my husband's family. I don't want to feel wrong. I don't want people to ask me, "Why did you get married, if you never see your in-laws." I don't want those annoying kinds of questions, you know.

I don't take my husband away from them, but I want to be in a place in my mind where they don't exist at all. If they exist, I begin to feel disappointed in them and the sort of people they are, and wonder if I made a mistake marrying my husband and adding these people to my "family". I don't want to feel that, so I push them far away. I don't consider my in-laws my family, is that OK?

My husband and I are having a childless marriage (and want it this way), and I am very happy with this decision. But, I am unhappy because I am happy never seeing or talking to my in-laws at all. My husband doesn't seem to mind, but I wonder if there is still a point to a marriage if I don't like my in-laws, don't get along with them, and if my in-laws and my own FOO (biological family) occupy such different worlds. Was the point of this marriage to bring both families together? Was the only point of the marriage so that my husband and I put a name on our stable long term monogamous relationship with all the social and legal benefits, that is good enough and normally I would feel that, but somewhere I feel incomplete and unhappy. My husband and I are even struggling now financially, and it is so hard. I don't see the point in anything at all right now.