Does your family drive you mad over Christmas?!

[HollyM]

Mine does, we've only been in the house together for less than 24 hours and already I want to get out! All the sibling rivalries and tensions come fully into play, I've got two sisters who both appear to have found Mr Right and although most of the time being single just doesn't bother me when I'm around them I feel like such a loser. Has anyone got an air ticket to somewhere remote that they don't want to use? I keep hearing the song 'I wish that it was Christmas everyday' in the shops and on the radio and keep thinking I'm very glad it isn't because I'd have lost it long ago!

[eastcoaster782]

Yeah, my family always seems to want to bring up issues that I don't feel like talking about (especially around the holidays when everyone's visiting).

[Krishna]

I solved the "difficult questions" issue by deciding to go with my SO to his house this year. By doing so I can avoid the "When are you getting married" question b/c his cousin dated someone for about 10 years longer than we've been dating. I love my family but sometimes the repetative questions are a bit much.:p

[WorkInProgress]

I went out today, just to get away.

[PenforPrez]

No, not really. My parents have ALL YEAR to drive me crazy! :p

[redav]

No. My family and I are good friends, and we get together frequently during the year.

I'm curious. For those whose families get on their nerves, what's the reason? Is just getting tired of being around the same people all the time? Is it some past grievance that rears its ugly head? Is it that obviously the hospital switched you at birth because there's no way you could share genetic material with those freaks? Or something else?

[eastcoaster782]

Redav-

For me, it's past greivances. And the thing is my other relatives bring "the issue" up more than my parents used to. Imagine that one minor stupid thing you did as a kid being brought back up year after year after year. Some people just don't let things die.

[AshleyJordan]

Past grievances and the fact that they are the LOUDEST people ever!!! :evil: There's only four of us, and I'm pretty much minding my own business, but they are in the next room talking over each other, and the TV, and having respective cell phone conversations, so loudly, that I want to escape the hustle and bustle of Maine for the relative calmness of NYC!!

[biodork]

Luckily for me I live near my family so I can just go home whenever I want. And anyways, my parents moved into a condo that only has two bedrooms, and my brother currently lives in the other bedroom. So I have to go home. :D

Oh and as for what gets on my nerves about them...yeah you know what my parents and grandma talked about at thanksgiving? Their colonoscopies. At the dinner table. While we were eating. Fun. Although it is a change from the usual crap going wrong at their business and what they should do and blah blah blah.

[WorkInProgress]

I love 'em, and they're great people. What's more, I like them. But everyone gets stressed due to holiday stuff, plus other personal issues (each, in themselves, minor, but they all add up to a fair amount of irritation). Basically, we all had a bad day on the same day today. Not fun.

[wordsmith]

Mine is actually super fun, so it's not really an issue. My mom gets really stressed with holiday preparations, though, so she can be short-fused and snappish in the days leading up, as she tries to make sure everything's handled...but I know this about her after 29 years on the planet, so it's not a huge deal.

[Kitty]

Not really...I see my family all the time and xmas and xmas eve aren't really any different. Plus, my family is super chill about the holidays..no pressure.

my extended family? Now that is a different story. Luckily, we don't do the huge family get-togethers anymore.

[pisces2473]

I'm not looking forward to going anywhere today. I want to stay home and watch TV. I've been on the go go go all month. Also, I don't want to deal with questions about the wedding. It's the same stuff all of the time--it's not news to me anymore. I've been taking care of this stuff since the beginning, and to keep rehashing it is annoying!

[vxmike]

I haven't seen any of my family over Christmas or any other holidays in several years...so no.

[g8ergal83]

i had 2 christmas's... the first with my bf's family on xmas eve, and the 2nd with my family on xmas day.

his family is great. they actually all want to be there, around each other, talking to each other, little kids playing with each other, all that stuff. i honestly cant get over how ... genuinely nice these people are. they're very welcoming and they take you in and are nice to you and feed you adn give you gifts.. x-mas eve was a great day.

then we went to my family's x-mas celebration, at my g-ma's house. my grandma is wonderful, my parents are great, my aunt is great, my cousins are great.. almost everyone is great individually. INDIVIDUALLY. let me stress that. when we all get together, and then throw in my other cousin's wife and her snoty, high-class want-to-be (but totlally not) acting like she's better than everyone else personality, you can cut the tension with a knife. before they got there, everything was going smoothly. when they walked in, they didnt offer hugs, they just carried their gifts past everyone and into the florida room and did their own thing, and then left. and when they were leaving, the bitchy mom told her kids to say something right in front of my parents "tell everyone thank you, and say thank you to 'wife and husband', whoever they are" (those are my parents) and so the kids said "thank you everyone, and to 'wife and husband', whoever you are" (they said the names but i'm leaving them out) and they know damn well who they are because they've been in the family for like.. 10+ years. i dont pay much attention to her because i dont like her, but isnt that rude to just come in, not say hi to anyone, and just walk past them with presents and go straight to another room to do your own thing, and then leave? and only offer insulting comments? why bother coming! they didnt even come for dinner!

which is another story - dinner. my bf of 3 1/2 years (x-mas eve) came with me to my family's thing as i went with him to his. so at dinner, the topic of "no child left behind" comes up, and the topic goes to spanish kids and how they're so special because its an unwriten rule about how they have to pass them, bla bla bla.. on and on. and my bf is the only spanish person there. he's caucasion-looking, so maybe they forgot he was spanish or something, i dont know. but i thought what they were talking about was insulting, and maybe even somewhat racist. he's the kind of guy to just laugh it off, or say something to make the speaker think twice about what they just said, and he did that, but still.. it made me mad. if it didnt insult him, it sure insulted me. even if my bf wasnt spanish it would have insulted me. i'm the only non-spanish person when i go to his family's house and they dont talk about like, white people and all this stuff, so why does my family do it? i have to give some love to my grandma though because she's the one who bluntly changed the subject and said something like "wow this ham is delicious soinso, what did you put in it?" thank you, grandmommy.

oh.. and the bitchy lady said to me once before - not yesterday - something like "you were the topic of conversation for a while when you first met Jose because he's spanish" and all this other stuff. what a low blow. i really dont like her. it makes me sick to know that certain people in my family are racist. i've had this discussion with my bf before, about racist people and all, and he just laughs it off because there's nothing you can do, and its never going to go away because the same people who are racist now teach their kids to be racist, and so on down the line. but it makes me sick. like this guy at a furniture store the other day was telling me about some lady who came in ... "this lady, soinso, is puerto rican, BUT... she's really good at her job." WTF?!? there doesnt need to be a 'but' there. i felt like leaving. i couldnt because i had to do some things there for my boss, but i'll tell you i'll never do my own personal business there.

i'm just happy my parents love him and my sister and her husband like him, and my grandma likes him, and thats really all that matters. and his family loves me too so we're all set. (and we love each other, too, dont let me leave that out. :) )

just wanted to tell about and vent about my couple of christmas-y days. :) thanks for listening.

[EmberMae]

I get along fine with my parents when they are 1) not telling me what to do 2) not treating me like crap for no reason. Unfortunately my mom's temper tantrums have become a yearly tradition in my parents' house. Every year in the weeks leading up to Christmas, she goes crazy and we have to tiptoe around to not piss her off. Usually we end up pissing her off no matter WHAT we do, and it makes us not even want to try. It's very frustrating when you only get a few days off a year and you want to have a nice holiday but instead have your mom yelling your ear off for something stupid like eating all the chocolate covered graham crackers. I'll buy you a whole BOX of graham crackers if it means that much to you, just CALM DOWN.

I really don't understand this mentaility at all. She gets so stressed out over the holidays and for the life of me I can not understand why, it doesn't matter if everything's perfect, what matters is you don't make the whole holiday miserable by guilt tripping and screaming at everyone. I think she needs mental help and that her everquest addiction is a serious problem, but she doesn't want to hear that.

[vivo]

I get along fine with my parents when they are 1) not telling me what to do 2) not treating me like crap for no reason. Unfortunately my mom's temper tantrums have become a yearly tradition in my parents' house. Every year in the weeks leading up to Christmas, she goes crazy and we have to tiptoe around to not piss her off. Usually we end up pissing her off no matter WHAT we do, and it makes us not even want to try. It's very frustrating when you only get a few days off a year and you want to have a nice holiday but instead have your mom yelling your ear off for something stupid like eating all the chocolate covered graham crackers. I'll buy you a whole BOX of graham crackers if it means that much to you, just CALM DOWN.

I really don't understand this mentaility at all. She gets so stressed out over the holidays and for the life of me I can not understand why, it doesn't matter if everything's perfect, what matters is you don't make the whole holiday miserable by guilt tripping and screaming at everyone. I think she needs mental help and that her everquest addiction is a serious problem, but she doesn't want to hear that.


yo momma is addicted to a computer game?

[EmberMae]

yo momma is addicted to a computer game?
Yes, both my parents. It's pretty sad and frustrating, but not much I can do about it since they see nothing wrong with it. Usually they are on weekdays from about 6 pm to 12 am and on weekends all day and night unless there is some kind of special occassion or sometimes they go to the movies.

[sparky88]

Yes, both my parents. It's pretty sad and frustrating, but not much I can do about it since they see nothing wrong with it. Usually they are on weekdays from about 6 pm to 12 am and on weekends all day and night unless there is some kind of special occassion or sometimes they go to the movies.

My mom was addicted to nintendo when we were kids. She'd be playing a game and my friends and I would ask when we could play it. She'd be like, come back in an hour and check with me....8 hours later...we still didn't get any game time in. I think it was her way of dealing w/ depression, etc. Funny though!