It was my sons birthday over the weekend, and we threw him a party at a church hall for his school friends. We invited our families also. My sister in law suggested (strongly), that we have a little family party afterwards as well, as they’d get there late because of a different commitment. I happily said yes, that sounds like a nice idea. She then says she will make dinner to bring along to that, because her boys would need more than party food as they’d been playing sports in the morning…I happily said yes, but began to feel like my sons birthday was being hijacked. My MIL and FIL then started saying how they’d just pop into the party, then come back to ours with her so they could get her dinner on.
in the end she came to the party with her sons, with a face like thunder and barely spoke to me. She criticised our apparent lack of cooking dishes and Tupperware and wouldn’t look at me when we were chatting as a a group.
We always seem to walk on eggshells with her, yet she does all these good deeds. Like bringing the dinner, like coming to cook for us when we had a newborn. I just don’t really understand the moodiness when she does these nice things. It’s like she does it and then beats us with it - as if it gives her something to hold against us. I didn’t say anything, and I wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t want to create friction with my in laws, but wow, why did she bother coming if she felt we wouldn’t cook enough for her sons and then have a face like thunder for the day!
My husband does bite back at the critisisms we get all the time. It’s over lots of little things - why would you do this, why that. Why buy this, when x is the best one out there. She’s a mean girl!