Wife declines a weekend with her husband's friends in a nice manner, but now the husband is mad at her regardless: 'I maintain I can decline an invitation without giving a reason'

You can dislike your husband's friends, but don't lie about it.Not wanting to go to your husband's friends' gathering is perfectly understandable. You may not want to hang out with people you barely know; you may just not feel like it, or you may be out of money to go to that. Whatever the case is, you are fully entitled to say no; you were invited, not obliged to attend. Not allowing your husband to go just because you don't go is different; that definitely is wrong. The thing is, you can say no to as many gatherings as you want; you can even dislike your spouse's friends; that is also acceptable; we don't like everybody. So, if you are like this wife and don't want to attend what your husband's friends are planning, don't go! You don't have to come up with an elaborate plan to reject the invitation to attend somewhere. You can just say "thank you for the invite, but I can't", and that should be reason enough. If it is a close friend, they may be entitled to demand a better explanation, but you can just say white lie and go on if you don't want to get into details. Even if we really want someone to come to our gathering or party, we have to accept that they may not want to come. …

≈