I was just thinking about how little it takes to set off some BSC and wondering if anyone else wanted to share stories of the most petty, inconsequential, or trivial things that set off a tantrum or hissy fit with your crazy relatives or inlaws.
It's a tough competition to choose just one for me, but I think my FIL wins this one in our family.
He came out for a visit while I was pregnant with my first. He was in the middle of divorcing MIL to take up with a much younger woman (his new wife is like 2 years older than my husband) who he was having an affair with. I could barely stand to look at the creep, I was so disgusted with his behavior, and it didn't help that he's a massive narcissist who had been rude to me in the past. But I decided I would try my best to just get through it, as he lives far, far away.
I thought I was doing a good job of grinning and bearing it. I went along on all the stupid field trips he wanted, with a smile. I kept my mouth shut as much as possible and tried to be just cheerful and polite. It was hard because this is a guy who talks ceaselessly, just a complete wall of verbalizing, so annoying. I tuned out a lot of what he said, and that came back later...
On his next to last day in town, he got my husband to go for a drive with him alone. Then FIL confronts him...about my computer. I had bought myself a new computer a few weeks prior, for school, using my loan money. It was nice, not top of the line or anything, but new and good. My husband had an older computer that worked just fine. FIL was enraged by this. Apparently in his world, the "way it works" is that the MAN is to buy a new car and a new computer, and pass his cast-offs down to the woman. The fact that I had bought a computer for myself instead of giving it to my husband proved that I was a "selfish, stuck-up, negative person."
My husband was stunned. "So wait, she gets money to use for school...and she's supposed to buy new stuff for ME with it? That's how you think this should work?" FIL completely blew his top, ranting and raving. About my selfish computer-buying tendencies, and my failure to dish up his egg foo yung for him when we had Chinese take-out. (I just set up a "buffet" and let everyone handle their own plate, since we were just sitting in the living room watching a movie.)
That was the last time we saw him. We didn't talk to him for a long time and then he cut us off because at 57 with his 27 year old girlfriend, he was "too young to be a grandfather." I wish I could post his FB profile pic here, he's got shades on and is pretending to be James Bond lounging by a pool. He's "friends" with dozens of sexy Russian spam accounts.
So a computer and egg foo yung. What ridiculous things sent your BSC relatives over the edge?