This paper describes the set of discursive strategies in the socializing messages of a mother and daughter interaction. The inquiry uses the work of Bakhtin (1981) and Tannen (2007) to question the role of a physically absent but discursively present sister-in-law, ‘Mami Ji’. The paper adds to the under-researched topic of the representation of sisters-in-law in discourse, theorises the chronotope in everyday conversation, and shows how mother and daughter solidarity is attained via opposition to another female family member.