I’ve got a problem that I forgot I had! My sister in law does this thing to me... we’ll be having a conversation, and she stops talking, so I start, and the minute I start she will start talking again. Every single time. I’d forgotten as I haven’t seen her since the beginning of the year. The other day we had a phone conversation and she did it throughout. We are spending a week together over Christmas and I’m after advice on how to deal with this? I’m not sure if she does it to anyone else in the family, I need to look out for that. To make it worse, I mentioned it to my partner and he said well you do interrupt all the time! He can be very overbearing and loud and doesn’t stop talking until he’s drained every last word out of a subject. Sometimes, he has the facts wrong, such as a day, or venue,so I will interrupt to say this, not to be a know all at all. That’s the only time I interrupt him. I feel so minimised by him in some social situations, he takes over and I shrink. I’m pissed off that he straight away said I was in the wrong, didn’t discuss it with me.
I’ve spoken to a good friend who says I don’t interrupt, and she sometimes avoids meeting up with us as a couple because he takes over the conversation and she can’t talk to me. She thinks he does this due to insecurity and isn’t aware of how overpowering he is.
I can pull him up on this, and have, but how to deal with my sister in law? I like her and want to address and stop this before it continues for the whole Christmas holiday!