I think CJD is right. Allen-T feels a need to have a relationship with his parents - because he is a kind human being. It has nothing to do with being Jewish or Gentile.
I think it is amazing that you guys rent a car just so that you can spend time with your Mom.
You are extremely luck to have such an understanding wife. Take strength and your cues on dealing with your family from her.
Sometimes you just have to take what people can give and not beat yourself up over the fact that they can't give more.
Their problems are not with you - it is with the situation that they live in and choices they have made - but you probably feel the brunt of their frustration.
Good Luck fixing your software!
Thank God it seems a simple re-installation did the trick, I got the work for today done without problems. Yes, I don't deserve my wife, she is great and I suck
. Sometimes I think she is extreme in ways, for example she has an absolutely dreadful father, I can't deal with him, but she troops off once a week to visit him, takes all his insults, his evil speak about me, etc. She believes that honor your parents is very serious, and I do also but we have different interpretations of what honor means in certain situations. I don't agree that one should subject themselves to constant verbal abuse, but she does. I haven't seen him since Christmas morning 3 years ago when after only 10 minutes being there he started his BS about what a loser I am, etc. Europeans tend to make more out of Christmas Eve than Christmas Day, so the routine was usually that she visits him on the eve, I spend it with my son, than we meet on Christmas Day and go to my parents house. My son spends the day with his mom, it's all good. This past year though because of this issue with my brother, and also my son went out of town to visit some other relatives, I was all alone on Christmas eve, and let me tell you, I had a BLAST! I hung around Greenwich Village hit some pubs, then hit some record shops, ran into someone I hadn't seen in 15 years that used to work in a record shop there and now owns 2, we enjoyed talking about old times, etc. I went for dinner at the Slaughtered Lamb, enjoyed more beer and then went to Subterranean Records, which is in a basement, where I met a bunch of really cool people that were just hanging out playing a really eclectic mix of music, everything from Kate Bush to KISS to Nina Hagen to Nico,etc. I hung with them, the guy hooked me up with good prices on some vintage Fleetwood Mac & Cheap Trick Bootlegs, and I went home very happy!! God is good.