I don’t know, it isn’t that bad I guess. It’s just so constant I can’t deal with it anymore while also being a happy and present wife and mother.

Literally if my stepson is in the room, I can predict with certainty that he is going to interject to patronizingly tell me how to do something I was already doing, confidently correct me on something he’s totally wrong about, or give me unsolicited advice on how to do some basic adult task he has obviously no knowledge of.

It’s hard to overstate how constant it is. If I am walking towards an elevator, he’ll announce “the elevator is this way” and race past me to make it seem like I wouldn’t have found it without him. After I push the elevator button, he will loudly deliberate “UM let’s see it’s on this floor” and hit the button I had already hit, thereby undoing it and pointlessly prolonging our trip. Then he’ll authoritatively ask, “Do you have the passports? You’re going to need them.” despite the fact that I’ve been traveling since before he was born and have never previously forgotten the passports.

When I’ll tend to absolutely lose it is when I ask my husband a question like, “Which terminal is our airline in?” a question my stepson can’t possibly know the answer to, and reliably without fail he’ll answer loudly and arbitrarily before my husband has a chance “it’s probably terminal 2, it’s always in terminal 2 in other airports, it most likely is here too” or some other random unhelpful input that makes it so I can’t hear my husband’s actual answer and I just snap, like stfu and let the knowledgeable adult handle something PLEASE.

This would be annoying no matter what, but he’s 6’3” and loud, towers over me, and just generally comes off as super domineering. It’s not like a little kid where you can just patiently ignore it. He comes off as an intimidating and imposing mansplainer lol.

My phrase I’ve started saying every time is, “If I need help I’ll tell you” but it doesn’t slow the rate much. I’m currently taking space sitting in a far opposite end of an airport lounge, really unsure of how to move forward short of disengaging.