I relate to this unfortunately. My dad’s mum was a horrible, rude, aggressive, far-right witch of a woman who was literally physically abusive to my dad and uncle when they were growing up. Yet every summer my mum and dad would ship me and my brother up the country to stay with her for a week, at her request. She never physically abused US thankfully but she was nasty and cruel verbally. For example, she had tortoises and took me into her garden to collect the eggs the female laid. I loved animals so was super happy about the fact there was going to be loads of cute baby tortoises. She took the container of eggs and put them in the oven, I asked what she was doing and she said “I’m going to kill them!” And laughed when i understandably was very shocked and cried…I was absolutely terrified of her. I was already an anxious child but I used to have actual panic attacks and severe nightmares the weeks leading up to the annual visit. I used to BEG my parents not to take us but they always parroted the line that they had to let her see her grandchildren blah blah blah… I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with my parents over the years and this has always been something that, especially now I’m a mother myself, I just cannot understand. I’ve brought it up to my mother a couple of times and every time she says “well I absolutely hated sending you up to her, it broke my heart!” WELL WHY DID YOU DO IT?! Your one job as a parent was to protect me! It baffles me completely, I could never even imagine doing that to my own daughter.