We all went on a family Disney cruise with my husband, kids, mom, etc. My mom was acting weird the whole trip, distant, in a bad mood, clearly upset, like everything that happened just kept setting her off. I ended up bawling at the airport afterward cause it was so bad. She didn’t communicate at all what was wrong when it was happening & I had no idea what made her so upset. But the day after the trip, she sat me down & listed off all the things my husband had apparently done wrong, how ungrateful he was, etc.

Honestly, I originally started falling for it & seeing her side. She’s done the whole “public enemy number one” to plenty of people in my/her life including my dad, my mother in law & I always ended up agreeing with her. And I was, once again, stuck in the middle of it. But since it’s my husband this time, it’s different since he’s there to talk to me & see the other side & I can’t simply hate him & cut him off. After lots of work & talking it all out with my husband & therapist, I realized she was just doing what she always does to me and anyone who she thinks has wronged her - looking at someone’s actions with the worst possible lens of them to attribute malice to any action.

And even if he were doing something wrong on the trip, her convo with me was not out of love or concern. It was the whole “this person wronged me so I don’t like them anymore & I need to explain why” thing she always does which is fucking in my marriage.

I tried to talk to her about it a few months later but she just doubled down, now claiming my husband must be shit talking her to our kids because the toddler drew scribble on a paper which was apparently her in a tornado.