At my wit's end with primadonna SIL - anyone else have a similar experience?
I could write novels about how awful my SIL is as a human, but I'll stick to the high level of my relationship with her.
The point of this post is I'm wondering if anyone else has similar experiences, and as a bonus, how have you gotten past it? There's also a touch of AITA (aka, should I just get over it? Am I being a baby?). Honestly, I am considering therapy just to talk out this relationship.
So basically this woman NEEDS to be the center of attention. She interjects herself into every conversation, even ones she's clearly not part of, adding her two cents, advice, stories, etc. She tries to come off as sweet and innocent, the most helpful person ever, but I think I'm the only one who can see she's full of BS. It's 1000% an act. She just wants everyone to see her as a super genius and be beholden to her. As I mentioned above, she also has a track record of horrible behavior in general, especially towards my BIL, so I don't see how everyone else isn't like wtf.
We just went on a big family vacation (12 people) and she was constantly talking and monopolizing everyone's time. What's worse is that she's LOUD too, so it's hard to escape her. She would even get in on my parenting. I'd be speaking to my son and she'd just have to step into the conversation. She doesn't have any children, so I'm not really interested in her two cents on how to get him to eat his vegetables. If I'm talking to him, especially in more serious situations, I don't really need the peanut gallery chiming in.
That may not sound terrible, but the overall crux is that she's nice to everyone...except me. In fact, she goes out of her way to not be nice to me. From day one she has been someone who talks over me, who corrects my personal opinions, who speaks/answers on my behalf when someone else is talking to me, and who just tries to make me look bad. I was excited to get to know her when she came on the scene because we are very close with her husband (my husband's brother), but she has never tried to be friendly to me, despite my attempts to be nice to her. I distinctly remember talking to her one of the first times we met, suggesting we hang out, and her straight up ignoring me like I was not even there. I've been in the family for years, so maybe she was/is intimidated by me, but I always found it so weird. There's nothing intimidating about me as a person. For the record, she is slightly nicer to me in more 1:1 situations but in big groups with in-laws, forget it. She wants to be the star.
Her behavior makes me completely shut down around her because I don't want her to correct me and I'm exhausted by her always-on persona, but that just makes me look like a bitch who doesn't want to be part of activities. It's all in the name of self-preservation, though. AITA? Can this be fixed, on my end or hers? Anyone else have a similar experience? Am I just out of luck here? It's a close-knit family, so there's no escaping her...