My son called my husband a jerk again. This happened several times before. And he is only 9 years old.

WORST of it all is that my husband did nothing!

I told my husband many times that he cannot let him do that, that he needs to tell him, give him a big consequence. By letting my son get away with that is like teaching him that it is o.k. thing to do to.

Although my husband did handled a couple of repeated similar episodes in a sort of mild manner, today he did nothing when my son said that to him again.

It just drive me completely mad to see my husband in such apathy. It is just utterly unbelievable and inconceivable that a man could be so passive, so spineless. Even when I questioned him again and again "why don't you do something about it?" and saying "Don't you know by not standing up for yourself you are making others disrespect you." "Not only your son, but me as well!" "I cannot understand why, can you explain?"

And he would look at me blank and say nothing. Even when I chewed him up like - "Don't you have any spine of your own." "You are not a man." "No parents would say this is right." "If you don't believe me, go talk to ten parents...."

All he did was mumbled softly "what do you expect me to do?"

That man is so DEAD. Nothing could stir him up, no matter how you chew him up - "you're so DEAD, I cannot believe it", "no woman would respect a spineless man."

I know I sounded so mean but God please help me. No matter how I bang him, pushed him, I still can't put life into him.

On the other side of it, as I was writing this, it dawn on me that I have married my father. And that I have attracted this same sort of man in my life. And I probably have subconscious embedded anger over my father passiveness.

Ya, I think it is my issue too - so what could we do to break this pattern.

I really appreciate your feedback and please forgive me for being so cruel. I am usually a very compassionate person.