My mother says she'll disinherit me unless I split with my partner

I have been with my partner for 14 years and we have two small children together. I have always had a complicated relationship with my mother, who was stern and a disciplinarian when I was growing up.

- Annalisa Barbieri

My mother recently told me she was surprised when I started a relationship with someone whom she considers to be of “a different class”.

My partner wants nothing to do with my mother and has not spoken to her in a couple of years. I was estranged for a year and a half after my mother offered to help us through a period of financial difficulty in the early years of having children, but only if I officially separated from my partner and her parents matched the contribution.

We recently reconciled, at which point my mother told my father she would commit suicide if she were held responsible for the estrangement.