Questioning
So in short, we have had years of abuse/neglect from 4 in laws. The last year has been quiet from the original aggressors aside from invites to events when they don't even talk to us. We have cut phone contact with them off completely. I did years ago my husband did this year. The male of that family doesn't act appropriate around me and or my daughter. I don't trust him and I have reasons not to. This is my sil husband. My mil cannot stand us having boundaries with sil/husband and has gone behind our backs and lied about following/accepting the boundaries we have. It got to a point that we could no longer be around sil/brother at all, not because of their behavior but because where it happened and lack of accountability on them and the rest of the family or whoever was with. We couldn't risk being too far away from a police presence and or needing to call the police and them lying about what happened as I myself and my daughter were targets. There are two other "targets" but mil seems to respect them more and they can have a boundary with whoever they want to and it is respected. They just hate me.
So since the only time we spend with mil was usually around sil and her husband and since it was usually somewhere too far away from reasonable people and a police presence, we told them we were no longer going to be around and that they could come to us. Mil started being rude and stalkerish in our house so that became a lost option, they maybe asked once or twice about getting together right after we made the boundary but then relentlessly kept messaging us about family events we were clearly not going to. Mil then started getting rude and snappy and overbearing on messages. I told her I'd block her if she keeps harassing us. I did indeed block her. And then my husband did as well. They have shown up randomly and either told not to in advance or told to confirm the visit and didn't each time they did this, and they did this 4 times. Once we have the footage, the other was in our back yard that now has cameras, we lock all doors now after one of the times and for some reason it didn't catch on our ring one time, and the first time we did this was so long ago the subscription lapsed before we realized we should have saved it.
They have tried contacting our daughter unanimously through the mail and I have an attorney picked out and up to date on the situation if we
Get harassed again, but my question -which I think I know the answer to- is is there any possible way of remedying the situation with these people like therapy or mediation? And I think the answer is no. Because I don't think they would hold up to their end of the deal and then by trying to do something nice it would once again backfire as counselors can't really do anything for us to show that we tried and we have no way of keeping what we have as protection for our daughter if we try therapy or mediation as that is contact so we would have to let go of no contact. There isnt something I am missing or don't know that I could do to help this situation is there? Has anyone been able to make anything work with their in laws after so much trauma from them?
Posted Feb 19, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC