I need some advice on how to help my boyfriend.
His parent's are great! They've treated me like part of the family from day one and they're wonderful and I do get along with the rest of his family.
This isn't a complaint on them really, but the community. We live in a small town and of course people talk...
My boyfriend is a stand up guy. Kind, hard working, college grad with a really good job and he keeps his nose clean. However, his siblings are another story. His sister rebelled when she was younger and was a stripper, been to prison for drugs, and she recently got a job...where she was fired for theft, but told my boyfriend's parents that she quit (She is 32 years old). Her husband has also had his run ins with the law and is blatantly racist and sports tattoos basically shouting it...even though I don't mind his sister I really can't stand her husband very much. Come to think of it, none of family can except for his sister. She's a big girl and made her choices, but he is the one that had a lot of influence over the direction that she's taken.
His brother is a recovering addict and has also spent time in prison for drugs. He gave his life to Jesus and has been sober going on 3 years now and we're really proud of his progress.
His nephews (His sister's kids) have already been to Juvi a couple of times...they're 13.
I love them and we certainly don't treat them differently because of their choices. The problem is people gossiping and judging. Recently, there have been a lot of posts on a deplorable website called "Topix" where people basically trash talk people and nothing else. They've been posting about my boyfriend's siblings and tying it in with things about him, like:
"Yeah right. You think that guy is really that much different than the other two? He's probably just as bad as they are but is better at hiding it."
"The other two are doing all of this stuff and you think that the other isn't? Doubtful. They're all cut from the same mold! They learned it from somewhere!"
"That whole family is worthless!"
This really starting to get to my boyfriend. It isn't only hurting him to have people think this way of him because of his siblings' actions, but it is also hurting him to hear people talk about his family in general. His mom and dad are good Christians and I know this kills them too as they didn't raise his siblings this way in any way, shape or form. They came from a good family.
How do I help him deal with these judgmental people?