My brother is an idiot. Let’s get that out of the way first and foremost. He essentially pulled a royal family. But to give you some context.
My cousin’s (Michael) wife (31F) is from Jamaica. She came to Australia 10 years ago for university. She met my brother at university and they’ve been together for 6 years. They were married 3 years ago. Had a baby girl back in June of this year. Back in October, “Jaz” parents came from Jamaica to meet their grand daughter. My cousin helped them fly out here as a surprise for his wife. We had bbq where our family got to spend time with her parents. Got to know each other a little better.
This is when my brother thought it would be a good idea to say to Ben (Mike’s brother / our cousin) ” I’m glad the baby has light skin, she’d get bullied in school for having a white dad”. Now he claims he was drunk when he said it. This got exactly the reaction you’d think it would from a new uncle / Mike’s s brother. They started to argue outside. That’s when Mike went outside to see what was going on and he found out what my brother said. It caused a massive falling out. Mike has not spoken to my brother since. He’s not spending Christmas with us because his parents wants to spend it with the wider family. He’s doing his own thing and wants to be left alone. He said Jaz just wants it to be the three of them this year. No exceptions.
I’m still pretty close to Mike. We text every day. My parents are putting the screws to me every time we talk to facilitate my brother to talk to Mike. Mike wants absolutely nothing to do with him. They think it’s the reason why Mike isn’t coming. And because I’m the closest to him, they think that I can somehow bring the peace to the two of them. But it’s also my brother who wants another chance to explain himself. And it’s just very hard to explain to him over and over again just why it’s not possible.
How do you actually navigate a family situation like this? Because no matter what direction i go in, leave it alone or do as they ask. It just ends up putting me in an uncomfortable spot.