DM and I fell out a few years ago. We live about 300miles apart, so don't meet up often. When we do we are mostly polite and distant, though DM sometimes struggles to contain herself - her behaviour towards me oscillates from very tearful to really angry. At the same time she's proven unprepared to actually discuss and try to address the issues between us in a constructive manner.
This evening I received a text to invite me, DH & DC to her birthday party in the summer (big birthday). She's holding a private camping event for family - my siblings, partners, gc's, my cousins, aunts, their families...
If DM & I were talking, this event would be my idea of hell - as an introvert interacting for an extended time with my mostly extroverted family can be exhausting. Now DM & I are not interacting, it'll be a million times worse. So I'm not going.
Im expecting DM will be fuming about this, and I will be cast as unreasonable, dramatic, cruel etc....
Any suggestions about how I say no without making things worse than they already are?