As if inspired by the visit of her Mother & Sister...

...the wife's behaviour took a turn from irritable to much worse.

It's as though she's trying to impress them with

- a showcased toughness (aka rudeness, curtness, disrespect...) towards me, and

- a foundationless showing of discontent.

She appears to be trying to build the case in the minds of others to validate the position she has recently been articulating:

Stealing Dunia away from her father.

...

Olga behaves with less patience towards Dunia when her Mother is present too... in particular where Dunia does not comply with her Mothers' and Sisters' requests with immediacy and with reverential respect.

...

Her behaviour is clearly provocative, but I am remaining calm. Obvious reasons in so far as providing grounds for her attack..

But even more so:

THE IMPACT ON DUNIA ... Herein lies my greatest upset.

Mother claims to love Dunia... and yet notwithstanding the number of occasions where (during lighter moments in particular) I have shared the importance of not being loud-aggressive-abusive-attacking in Dunia's presence (..I actually request that this be the case in general, but MUCH MORESO when Dunia is present)...

Olga continues and continues to be abusive-aggressive... in full view of the little-fragile one.

....

Note re FATHERING:

Olga articulated an hour ago that my active and immediate responsiveness to Dunia's calls for interaction/assistance etc are a source of great irritation for her.

...Additionally, this evening, it irked Olga that when her Mother and Sister arrived, Dunia did not immediately run to meet them. Dunia & I happened to be in the middle of watching a little skit she loves and we finished off an extra minute before joining the guests.

...Oh yeah... the fact that I carried Dunia into the kitchen to greet the arrivals was met with irritation too (..maybe even moreso when I had to insist that she leave my arms).