Carolyn Hax: Son’s father-in-law called your covid advice ‘sanctimonious.’ How to respond?

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(Nick Galifianakis for The Post)

Son's father-in-law called your covid advice 'sanctimonious.' How to respond?

Dear Carolyn: I normally have a great relationship with my son's in-laws. She's a retired nurse and he's a fairly eminent scientist in the environment field, also retired. Due to the pandemic, I had canceled a visit to my son to meet my new granddaughter and to celebrate the birthday of my other son's daughter. Just as I was canceling, my son's mother-in-law announced that she couldn't wait for the big visit. I suggested to her that she should consider not going.

My son's father-in-law told me, in a text message to a family group, to "not be so sanctimonious." They did in the end cancel the trip, and I suspect my daughter-in-law told them to stay home.

Eventually I will need to be in the room with them again. How should I handle this? I'm not looking for an apology, but I'm also fairly annoyed. My general take is my son's father-in-law is pretty much sanctimonious beyond all peradventure. Mostly I get along fine with them, as we agree on all things political/environmental, but not necessarily on all things child-rearing.

— Annoyed

Read Carolyn's Response