...even though I'm related to them?
My sil (DH's sister) and her husband are the couple in question. "Why do you dislike them?" I hear you cry. Well, I have to say they are perfectly decent people in so far as they don't commit terrible crimes or abuse anyone. They aren't my kind of people to begin with, but over the years I've known them, I've grown to dislike them. Sil is quite competitive in a silly, smirky sort of way, but manages to contain it most of the time and it isn't too annoying. When her husband is there though, this becomes passive aggressive little digs at me, backed up with a smirk from sil. I also know that they used to bitch about me to my DH's other sister, as I caught them out, but it was something so vague that it would have been impossible to prove even if I had wanted the aggravation of doing so. They bitch a lot about other people, so this doesn't really surprise me and doesn't especially bother me as we have never been close.
I could sit and list all the examples, but the bottom line is that I find them very stressful to be around.
I've never spoken to anyone else in the family about it, but it surprises me that nobody's noticed it. There is a lot of favouritism towards sil anyway, so I suppose they don't see it maybe or possibly do, but don't especially care. They are very close to sil and her husband and there dcs, so I would feel like I was attacking my pils or other sil personally, if I said anything to negative to any of them about sil or her husband iyswim. Anyway, we're all adults so really shouldn't need pils to intervene on my behalf.
So I suppose, after all that blabber, the problem I have is as much to do with the family dynamic as with sil and husband personally.
Is it fine to just let DH do all the in-law crap in future? We have a DD who loves seeing them, so obviously I wouldn't do anything to stop that. I'd encourage it really, as my own mum is dead, my dad and siblings aren't nearby and I'm not especially close to my siblings anyway.
Perfectly happy to be told I should plaster on a smile and put up with them to keep the peace, but the last time I had to spend a significant amount of time with them, I hated it so much. I got to a point where I sat mute at the table as everything I said seemed to result in either a smirk or a passive aggressive comment. I can just picture what they say behind my back and frankly don't want to be around them to provide any ammunition. I don't want to cut anyone out or anything, as we have a family wedding soon, so have to see them then. I'd just like to avoid spending time with them unless I have to. AIBU?