the elder is trying to divide mouses family. i don't think the equal partnership year 2003 applies here. mouse needs to use every loop hole he can to try and keep his family in tact. his major advantage is that he is male and a jw wife is supposed to be in subjection to her husband. i personally think that being in subjection to someone is BS but that is how the witnesses believe so I say use it to your advantage.
he could tell his wife not to go and that will send a message to the elder and his wife that if they want to spend time with his wife and kids they better send an invite. no telling what crap they are filling their head with. if he was there I bet they would not do that. if i were in her shoes I would not have gone. this is only my opinion of course. sorry you are dealing with this mouse.
dmouse I am sorry for your pain. My family has anniversary parties and they invite my 8 year old daughter and not me. I let her go, after explaining to her why they have excluded me. I have been tempted to tell them that if I am not welcome then neither is she, but really what would that acomplish? I want her to see that I (the excluded bad apostate one) am the better person and eventually I want her to make her own decision about the kind of person she wants to be and to be with....
I think it is great you let your wife make her own decision about going, I am sure ultimately she will respect you for that. You can't force people to make changes, they have to make them on their own because they see it is the right thing to do. You give the term "head of the house" a good name
This happened to us when my wife was still attending. Anything during the eveing was turned down. My wife did go out with some witnesses for lunch but usually it turned around into a "whats wrong with your husband" type of conversation.
I think in the long run that sort of thing helped to chase her away too.
