Dear Prudence,
My brother has been with his current girlfriend, Jenna,” for a year and a half. He introduced her to the family approximately a year ago, although scheduling conflicts and so on have made it so we haven’t spent a ton of time with her.
Jenna is very sweet, obviously trying very hard to ingratiate herself with the family, and most importantly, she makes my brother very happy. Great, right? Well, mostly. Around the beginning of this summer, the relationship became a lot more serious. Now I’m spending a lot more time with Jenna.
So I’ve discovered how annoying I find Jenna. Her mannerisms grate on my nerves. The PDA is awkward. (Though I recognize that’s also on my brother.) And most frustrating of all is how overfamiliar she is. She hugs, touches, and uses very intimate pet names, seemingly with me more than with other members of the family. This has been happening since our second interaction, but it’s all the more apparent now that we spend more time together.
I make an effort to be nice despite this, because it’s not Jenna’s fault we don’t get along well. (I checked with another relative, and they confirmed my behavior toward Jenna has been completely normal/polite/ordinary.) But if my brother and Jenna are in it for the long haul, I need to find a way to manage this irritation. Please help!
—Misplaced Malcontent