This story may be the worst way to win a fight, to have a fight, to show off your skills as a competent adult: a 38-year-old woman decided that the best way to show her sister-in-law exactly what she thought of her would be to cut the woman’s hair as she slept. Creepy or super creepy? You decide.
This story, which comes from the popular relationship subreddit, is either completely nuts or just “not the way my family did things.” (Which would still make it completely nuts in my opinion because we are Russian and there’s a lot of fighting and throwing shit and gnashing teeth against teeth and such in my family).
Here’s what’s up:
She has been my sister-in-law for a year and we have never gotten along. She has always been rude and condescending to me. My husband wanted to visit his sister the day (Monday), and I reluctantly agreed. I tried my best to be civil, but she kept picking fights. She eventually started a verbal disagreement about how my husband could have done better than me etc. I tried to keep my cool and ignore her, but she eventually started screaming and my husband had to tell her to calm down and intervene.
OK, first of all, maybe talk to your husband about the way his sister speaks to you, because that’s not cool. I am not a fan of people who say “it’s not mean if it’s true” or “I’m just brutally honest” because that usually just translates to “I am an asshole with no social graces or filter and should be applauded for it”—and those people should be shut down every time.
I ended up going to bed (their guest room) and my husband and her husband stayed downstairs watching TV while SIL did the dishes. I dozed off and was awoken a while later by someone touching my hair. I sleepily thought it was my husband and rolled around and saw SIL snipping my hair with scissors. I immediately pushed her away and she ran out of the room. I went downstairs and informed my husband and his brother and showed them the cut strand. They both said that SIL “is immature and not let her get on your nerves”.
Immature is saying “your husband could have done better than you.” This is… what is this exactly? It’s certainly not normal behavior and it’s certainly not OK. Why isn’t it being discouraged?
I do not understand how they can be so passive and not think this is a big deal?!?!?! Am I overreacting? This is NOT normal behaviour for someone who is nearly 40 and I am so angry that she cut my hair while I was sleeping. I told my husband that I no longer want to visit her and he told me that I was acting like a drama queen and sinking to her level. What do I do??
I am clearly biased toward the victim here and am kind of appalled that she’s being referred to as a drama queen. If someone cut my hair while I was sleeping, I would probably wake up and reflexively punch them in the face (I am a very aggressive sleeper) and then demand an apology. You just don’t do that kind of shit. And saying, “hey, for my own personal safety, I would like not to visit your relative who wields sharp objects while I sleep,” sounds like a reasonable request to make of a significant other. No one’s asking that the sister-in-law be drawn and quartered while all of her possessions burn in retribution.
What do you think? What would you do? And would the police be called?
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