Do you have people in your life that you constantly stifle reacting to them out of love for them?

Yes, my aunt. She is my last older relative left alive and was really good to me when I was a kid. She lives alone and, unfortunately, has aged into an opinionated, judgmental, busy body (with slight overtones of religious superiority and a hint of racism). She also only calls me when she needs help with something.

I bite my tongue a lot.

She has also annoyed my wife and daughter to the point where they are all done with her.

I’m okay with it because of our history and, frankly, she won’t be alive for too much longer.

No. I am good at setting boundries.

Wait….are you asking about US doing the stilling? If so, then no. I don’t think so. I try to respect my children’s lives and how they raise their kids. My mom used to stifle my child rearing and it pissed me off.

No. I am single, have no SO, and have disowned all family members save one.
I don’t discriminate. I hate everybody.

Awe @kritiper. ;(

Take 3. Yes. My daughter in law
Not so much because I love her, but I don’t want to get cut out of my grandkid’s lives. And she’d do it in a heart beat.

Practically everyone for me, but we’re raised to keep it polite and comfortable. First one to break the social rule is the loser.
Many people assume I agree with them because I hide my expressions well. Yet I rarely do.

To clarify, I mean the other person really bothers you, maybe even upsets you, raises your anxiety or anger level, but you continue to be nice and tolerate them because you love them or maybe just don’t want to have a blow out argument, there could be many reasons.

For me it is my father. Just yesterday he tortured me again with trying to tell me how to swallow pills (I am very bad at it, and I need to take a new medicine) and I find it very upsetting, because as a child I was led to believe I was the only person in the world that has that problem, and it is not true. Anyway, this is just a small example of a Chinese torture like dynamic with him, but he does a lot of great things for me too, and I enjoy his company when he is not doing this sort of thing to me.

He is in his late 70’s, a lot of health problems, and I do my best to stifle and let him talk, but sometimes I am very reactive and cause a fight. I do think what he does to me shortens my life. I am dead serious. Sometimes I just draw a line and tell him I just can’t, but eventually he will bring the topic up again whatever it is. He is compulsive about that sort of thing.

There are people who I know & care about who make decisions I judge unwise. And there are a few in particular who will speak of their intentions, ask for my input, then dependably either ignore every word of it or react in defiance. They are the ones who inevitably reappear down the line in desperate need of help, and apparently lead lives best described as stumbling from crisis to crisis. They are particularly dangerous in the threat that you be devoured as well in the enormity of their resulting misery, and too often, your only viable defense is an impenetrably hardened heart.