J
Your issues with family and relatives struck a chord with me. My strategy now is to maintain good boundaries and keep a respectful distance. I always check I am not triggering a smart alec response from them. Keep the conversation boring and avoid stating strong opinions. I have a debrief with myself, before seeing them at get togethers. Psych myself up. Keep up my guard. Now some people might say this is not very nice and kind of unfriendly. But other peoples’ behaviour can be very childish. (Ok mine too 🙂 ) Sometimes you have to be the mild-mannered mature one, in order for them to stay on the leash.