Dr. Laura: I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Larry, welcome to the program.
Larry: Hi, Dr. Laura.
Dr. Laura: Hi.
Larry: I'm in a-first of all, I am my children's father, and I have a little bit of a family rift that I need a little bit of advice on. My wife and I are pregnant with our second child, and it is a boy. My sister has four girls and is also pregnant, does not know the gender of her child, but she has claimed the stake on a name that we also want to name our boy. So she yesterday called us, and asked us not to name the child the name that we wanted to name him.
Dr. Laura: Is your sister a little bratty and petty in general? I mean, is she a little thorn in the side of you guys in the family in general, or is this a very unusual behavior?
Larry: It's not incredibly unusual, although I wouldn't quite characterize it the way you have, but no, it's not unusual. Dr. Laura: Okay, so-and the reason I ask that is A. if she's the kind of person who is petty and demanding like that, or gets irritated or hurt with some relative ease, and constantly makes everybody worried about how she's going to feel and how she's going to react, then you might as well name your kid whatever you want to name it. Because if you don't, she's going to find things in the future to call you up about, so you won't have gained anything. But, however, if there was just an unique passion about this name that was special to her, and she is always just generous, with equanimity and all of that, then I would say give her the name, because it means so much more to her than it does to you. But since she has a tendency to behave "like this," however "like this" is defined, then there is no point in bowing to her, because the expectation will be that every time she is annoyed or wants something, you better bow. And I guess you have to decide if you're going to bow to your wife or bow to your sister. Now go do the right thing.
