Thanks Open Eyes. My aunt is 6 years younger than my mother. Let's just say my grandmother behaved exactly how my mother is now. Playing one child off against the other. That's contributed to my mother's low self-esteem.

Have Hope, thanks. You don't want to think this about your family but it's become clearer since the episode with sister-in-law. How my brother could say it wasn't domestic abuse; he's just hen-pecked. When my stepfather hit my mother many years ago, he threatened to floor him if he did it again so why is he now condoning his wife's behaviour. Lastly, my mother's attitude today openly displayed her favouritism for her son. Am I jealous? No, known this for a long time. She's also been horrible for ages so it's not down to being old or frail.