True Friendship and the Jealousy Factor

  My best friend and I have been friends for almost 20 years. I grew up with brothers and never had a sister,but I consider my friend a sister. We tell each other everything. We love each other, just like sisters, like family. Our friendship began when we met at work, before we met our husbands and had families of our own. It’s been great and we still are the best of friends, but  jealousy has reared it’s ugly head. The jealousy is not between us, but with her husband and 2 of her 3 children.

  For whatever reason, they started getting jealous of our friendship when we started going out on a regular basis. We’ve been going out once or twice a week now for about 2 years…mostly while the kids have been in school.  But in these 2 years they’ve been trying to interfere and break our friendship up.  My only question is why? They are jealous and want it to end… but why?

 They want to see  me out of the picture. She is constantly given the third degree when we go out and want to keep tabs on her. She’s not allowed to live her own life or have any friends [as far as they're concerned]. Her husband and kids can go out and see who they want, but when it comes to our friendship, it’s a completely different story. When her children are getting involved in this and they’re telling her she can’t go out, it’s becoming a major problem. She is also wondering why all this is happening! It’s also come to the point where I have been getting threats from her daughter.

 Yes, we do have our own lives and families, but why can’t we still be the best of friends too?