Your MIL is a button pusher. People like that want to disturb and frustrate you. One tactic is not to let her know she is succeeding. That might frustrate her a little bit. With someone who is incessant, though, that tactic isn't usually enough. There comes a point where you have to find away to tell them to knock it off. Not that she will, but what you really have to do, if it gets to you bad enough, is to make clear that, when this crap starts, you'll get away from her.

I've been around button pushers and it can really make you nuts. Sorry you're dealing with this. Share nothing with this woman, including your diagnosis of PTSD. It will absolutely not make her any more decent in how she treats you. It will do the reverse. Oh, she'ld love to know - so she can put you down about it.

What she said about her daughter was just to needle you. It's sad that she has such an impoverished spirit that this is how she gets her kicks. She's not a nice person, and the less you interact with her, the happier you will be. Her sister might be an interesting person for you to build a relationship with . . . or her daughter, but not her.

Make no mistake - her needling comments most likely are not made thoughtlessly. They are designed to antagonize you. Feel free to develop a headache that requires you to go lie down when she visits. You owe no tolerance to this kind of behavior. She's mean, plain and simple.

For your husband's sake you probably do the best you can to be civil toward her, but there's a limit to how much psychological abuse you have to let yourself in for. Her thinking will never change.