Identities have been altered to protect the innocent and the accused TL;DR at the bottom

Be Uncle Bob, my mother's brother. How did I find Uncle Bob to be further testimony to MGTOW, despite never suggesting to me not get married? I'll explain:

Bob got married to Kendra in the early 90s, around the time my own parents got married. Now, Kendra already had 2 other children conceived from a different man. That didn't seem to bug Bob much, and from what I can tell they all got along, except Perry, the step son and oldest of the cousins on my mom's side. Perry and Bob antagonized each other a lot, although their relationship has smoothed over as he grew up and took an interest in BBQ, one of Bob's passions. Fast forward to now. My dad, who Bob was very close to emotionally, is dead. Bob has no man to refer to except me, but I am still young (low 20s) and my father died when I was a child. Here's where it gets twisted. So, Kendra has been a stay at home mother essentially their whole marriage. They had 3 daughters together. The oldest just graduated from university and the youngest just started this past fall. Bob has been working for UPS for years and has been treated like shit at work. But you'll rarely hear him complain, even if you ask about it, 99% of his answers are, "We don't talk shop outside of working hours."

So here is a man who raised 5 kids, 2 of whom are not even his, on his dollar for the most part. In his house. Now, Bob is addicted to cigarettes and is considered to be an alcoholic according to everyone (I'd argue he is a functioning one if that). Dude has loved his Miller High Life and Marlboro Reds since the 70s. Now, you'll constantly hear his kids and wife lecture him about it in front of other family members (all women btw). They will also ridicule him constantly and talk shit to him to his face, his oldest biological daughter included (and they wonder why he drinks and smokes). Aunt Kendra actually had a phase where she bought stupid shit off QVC, and would laugh it off when he brought it up. In her eyes, her covert hoarding is justified while his enthusiast collections are a nuisance. He collects license plates, baseball cards, and baseball bats. Kendra heckles him all the time about it, despite everything else in the house being shit she bought. When they aren't criticizing his collections and addictions, they'll put him on blast for other stupid shit, while he may criticize Kendra back, it is never as often as he receives it. He looks 10 years beyond his age. He looks 5 years apart from my paternal grandpa when he was 80! White hair, wrinkled skin, and beat up body at the age of 58. I've seen other 58 year old men, and they look far younger than Bob.

Here's the meat of the potato. Besides my mom and grandma (grandpa died in '09), everyone in his immediate family has leeched off of his hard work. Remember Perry? Perry is 30 and just married last August. He tells everyone how great his job is and how well his wife's is (his wife is actually really a pleasant person despite him). So, why is Bob still paying off Perry's fucking college loans 8 years after he graduated? Who the fuck knows. Something tells me Kendra and Perry manipulated poor Bob into doing it. So now he is paying off a 30 year old man's loans while his 2 daughters have/are attended/ing big time colleges. Colleges that are not cheap either. What did Kendra do to help? Allegedly stole about 12k from her neighbor. Regardless of how it happened, her neighbor gave her 12k for safekeeping or whatever (something family related or will-related, I don't quite remember). Well, Kendra lost it. 12,000 bucks just gone. She was charged and convicted of a felony for it. 6 months she couldn't leave the house, while my grandma had to chip in for SECOND MORTGAGE Bob had to take out in order to cover Kendra's greedy ass. Everything about it is fishier than a New England cod market on a saturday morning.

I feel bad for Bob. I cannot relate to him about baseball, since I stopped baseball after 4th grade. Hate it now for the most part. I'm not like my dad was, who Bob confided in and got along with swimmingly. But at the same time, I don't like Kendra, and he decided to marry her. She has treated my widowed mother like shit since my father died, while acting 2-faced to me about the whole ordeal. Perry is still sucking her (Bob's) tit. Bob's oldest biological daughter is super intolerable. I hear her rant constantly about how hard she has it as a woman, yet she chose a bullshit major to get a degree in.

At the same time, while Bob and I cannot seem to relate to one another as much as we'd like, he taught me the best thing, something my own father didn't teach me. He indirectly has displayed to me how being MGTOW is the best decision I could ever make. Every time he brings up the time he was in the Air Force, in Germany, on his uncle's farm, or watching The Red Machine, I am reminded how bad he wishes it was still 1978, when he was 20 years old. Before he was married. Before he had to break his back for a whack job wife and ungrateful little shit children (although his 2 youngest daughters actually seem reasonable and appreciative of him). And before his hair turned gray and before Pete Rose was caught cheating in baseball. The good ol days, when he still had his '63 Chevelle and his freedom. Even though he hasn't directly told me he wants to be unmarried and child-free, I can see it in his eyes. I can tell by how often he recants these stories with me. I can hear it in his voice. Uncle Bob just wants to be in the country with his Chevelle, his Miller High Life, a Webber-grilled steak, and a pack of Marlboros, with his independence and without his dependents.

TL;Dr - Uncle Bob's crazy klepto wife, his greedy step son, and the shit he has to endure just to keep his family intact reminds me every time I see him that being MGTOW was the best lesson he ever taught me, even though he never told me shit (yet). Don't be like Bob if you value your sanity and well-being.