My sister used to do that in a sly, sneaky way. She wouldn’t flat out lie, but she’d make implications that suggested I was stupid, irresponsible and clueless. Her gig was that I was the oldest, and she wished she had that position. She also wanted to be the smartest person on earth.
When I met my future ex husband he had an 18 month old daughter. I accepted the child whole heartedly as my own. About 6 months after we married, he and I decided that he made enough to support all of us if I wanted to be a stay at home, mom, which I did. (We both worked at Boeing.) We were also working on getting me pg (took 3 years, as it turned out.)
My sister told a friend that I quit my job to be a stay at home mom, and I didn’t even have any kids! I said, “I have Jenny…..”
My sister said, “That’s not even your kid!”
It shocked me that she said that because she knew how I felt about the child.