I see a storm waiting to happen in my family

Something is not right with my family recently. I observed some trail of conflict and tension building up among people here, and it seems like this was not going to be pretty.

I started sensing that something was wrong a week ago when my sister-in-law and my nephew started going to bed pretty early, sometime around 10:00 p.m. . At first I thought this was just an act of trying to make sure that my nephew woke up on time to school.

But a day later, when I went home at about 10:30 pm, turned on the light of my room and started a bit online radio, I heard a loud door slamming sound. The door of my sister-in-law's room, which was opened a few seconds ago, was shunted. I asked my mom what was going on, and my mom explained it with a murmuring voice, “... well, guess your sister-in-law was a bit unconscious with her sleepy head, and tried to close to door without thinking too much ...”

I didn't buy that explanation, and very conscious about making sure that my door light wouldn't turn on until I shunted the door.

I also sensed something strange: my nephew was not as bouncy and joyful as he used to be since a week ago. When I left home last Sunday morning, I saw my nephew starring at the television, so I said Hi to him. Usually he would greet back enthusiastically. Well, he didn't this time. He saw of looked at me and then looked at the television again, as if something was bothering him.

Keep in mind that my nephew is just a 3 years 8 months old kid.

And then today I went home at 9:30 pm. The sister-in-law's room was closed, which I assumed that she went to sleep, and I saw my nephew laid next to mother. I heard him vaguely murmuring something like “... I don't want grandma cries, and I don't want mom cries ...”. When I saw my nephew, I asked “hey, still not sleep yet”. And again, he looked at me, with a face of mindful of stuff, didn't say a word, and walked away, went back to his mom, my sister-in-law's room.

But the most worrisome thing occurred after my nephew walked away. My mom slowly walked next to me, and said with a whispering voice, “Your sister-in-law got really moody. I kept trying to accommodate but ....”. So that confirm something I suspected a while ago.

To be fair, my sister-in-law doesn't seem to have much friend in Hong Kong (my brother married her a few years ago in mainland China), and it seems like my brother and was too close her ever since she arrived Hong Kong 3 years old. I was a bit worry about their relationship since the beginning as I didn't see much communication between them.

And people within our family don't communicate much with each other, which I think should be the biggest problem.

Plus I have to admit that I may probably be part of the problem since I got moody myself very once in a while, which I usually take a passive solution by closing the door and mind my own business. I also don't stay home too often, which worsen the lack of communication problem.

So here's the mess of my family as of now.