What do you do when you've tried the one-on-one, and still get ambushed with nasty criticism and insults? I thought I'd at least gotten a detente with my sister-in-law after I orchestrated us going to dinner and a Michael Buble concert. That evening seemed to have gone well. But still, she seems jealous of the fact that my brother and I are close and he talks freely and easily with me. Apparently communication, or the lack of it is a big issue in their marriage. She keeps putting me into the middle of it!! She's said things in email that are just sicko in my opinion (tells me in an arugment with my brother that she told him that he talks to me more than her, so he should be married to me!? why tell me that?). The latest is her complaining to me that my brother and I 'dominated' conversation when she, my husband, my brother and a friend she invited along went out for a beer after going to a comedy show together. Apparently she 'had great expectations' of the evening and they didn't match how she'd imagined it...and somehow this was my fault because my brother, myself and my husband talked about university. I'm a professor there, my brother is back in school and my husband recently took a course...so it is something we all have in common. But we certainly didn't talk about that all night - we all have kids in hockey and talked about that too...so what is her problem?
There have been lots of other times too where my sister-in-law has been snippy and rude - I'm at my wits end - I feel bad because it makes things difficult for my brother, but at the same time I've had it with this woman.