Hi Elsa,

I have been dating a guy for over a year now and love him a lot. His parents are nice and treat me well however, his younger sister is a nightmare. She is malicious, jealous and goes out of her way to be nasty to me. She monopolizes his attention whenever she can, and often behaves as if she is his girlfriend and not me. She is also pretty aggressive by nature and always notices the worst in everyone. She is only 19!

Unfortunately the boyfriend lives together with his family, and has no plans to move out. I also spend weekends at their place, and come into contact with her at home and at social situations as she hangs out with his friends.

In the beginning, I ignored her behavior but it did not seem to help. Recently the situation has deteriorated. We now either ignore each other, or snipe at each other. The boyfriend just ignores it. I have explained to him that the sister’s behavior is upsetting me and that I want him to stand up for me. But he has flatly refused, saying that he does not want to get into the middle of this and that I need to stand up for myself and handle the sister myself.

I thought that maybe if she got a boyfriend that would help with the aggression and the attention that she obviously craves. But with her personality and rather average looks, I don’t think it will happen any time soon.

What should I do? I don’t want to live with this constant animosity.

Thanks for your help!
Weekends With His Family