DM has come to visit for Christmas and we're 2 days into a 10-day visit.
She's quite high maintenance and always has been. She talks about herself non stop and we need to be suitably interested/impressed with her story (that we've heard 100 times before). I'm not allowed to talk about anything that doesn't fit with her image of me as the perfect daughter. She needs constant praise and recognition of how great she is. She is often unaware of how others might perceive what she is saying - so talking today over lunch about how my father didn't want to have custody of me after they divorced, and I was lucky she didn't get me adopted. She didn't seem to recognise that this might upset me. Thankfully we've had this conversation many times before, and I know the only way to react is to praise her selflessness.
More worryingly than all that, my DD7 is quite uncomfortable around her. Grandma often says quite critical things to DD7 and I do call her out on it when it happens, but DD asked me today when grandma was leaving.
What the bloody hell am I supposed to do for the next week? I didn't mind so much when DD was too young to understand, but now DM's behaviour is taking its toll on the whole family. And just to complicate matters, now I'm of the age where DPs are often in ill health or dying, I feel so incredibly guilty about feeling negative and not cherishing every precious moment.