MIL constantly disciplining little niece…

[23W]

MIL is 80, we are hosting her for Christmas Day. In the afternoon, BIL will join us with his 3YO DD, lovely child, after SIL leaves for her shift.

We have been in this group on many occasions and every time MIL constantly is on DN case, shouting Do This, Don’t Do This, Say Thank you. The child does not have a moment to process that she has been given a gift, a snack or needs her hands wiping, and react appropriately. She does mainly blank MIL commands, so it mainly winds up everyone else. Should we also just ignore her and let her carry on, or should she be gently told to back off, not her child, not her house, she is a guest?

I’d probably keep reminding MIL to leave the little girl alone!

Does her dad say anything?

My mum does this to my ds and it cracks me up. Its definitely generational to an extent - she sees it as her "teaching" ds but actually it comes across as quite critical and I do step in because I don't want it to affect his confidence or self esteem. I would say something and I'd start light hearted like oh it's hard remembering all these things when you're only 3 isn't it , and if she keeps going I'd be direct and just say I know you're trying to keep her right but it's coming across as a bit much, why don't you try positive reinforcement instead it works much better? And explain how that works. I've had to be super direct with my mum and tell her to stop and to be less reactive when ds makes mistakes because they're part of life. She doesn't like it but he's too little to stand up for himself so that's my job.

Solidarity OP... same situation here, except it's my Mum, constantly criticising my 3 yr old grandchild (who is a perfectly typical, and excited little kid) while also blatantly favouring my brothers 2 yr old.
My DD2 is upset, and I'm quietly steaming... I have told my Mum to back off several times and then get the 'oh woe is me, I'm an old lady who can't do anything right'

It's the last time I'm hosting. I'm just not doing it anymore as my Mum is just getting more unkind every year. She never liked my eldest DS and used to pick on him while favouring eldest DD, but she's even worse now.

We've all pulled her up on it and thankfully DGC is fairly oblivious but I am counting down the days til she goes home.
Good luck!