It's holiday time again. I am busier than ever. it seems that almost everyone I've ever seen wants to come back this week. They all are seeing their families, and no grudge is ever forgotten.
The people who seem to be the most upset are those whose parents are divorced and remarried, especially if they have been remarried two or three times. Then you can add to this the couples I see, where each member of the couple has parents who are divorced and remarried.
So, who do you visit, and how much time do you spend, and who gets to see the kids and give which gifts, and who gets left out, and what resentments are left over from last year? Does Mom still cry when it's time to go see Dad? Or does Mom have a restraining order on Dad, which makes bringing everyone together for the Family Christmas a little risky. Especially when your brother is a cop and would have to arrest Dad for coming near Ma.
The best one I heard this year was a woman whose mother has a last name that is recognizable in a certain ethnic group. She was born with that last name and then married a man who also had it. She divorced him, and her next two marriages were all to men who had that same name, so now, at seventy, she has never changed her name, has six kids from three different men, now has fifteen grandchildren -- and everyone has the same last name, and no one remembers who is whose, but they all don't get along.
merry holiday!!
4 comments:
Sounds like my family and they wonder why I don't do the holidays well :-)
Holy crap therapist. No wonder.
Everyone wants this "perfect holiday" the one that looks just like the one in the tv commercials. What you describe is the reality. It is too bad that our society has taken it this far and still the mental image of the perfect family Christmas remains. I suppose I should count myself among the lucky, and my children too, as they only have to deal with one set of ex's and we all get along relatively well. I feel for all that has the baggage that you describe. It has to be a damned mess. I feel for you, who has to help them sort it all out.
Merry Christmas to you, in spite of it all, I do hope that your own holiday is a good one. :)
At 26 and 28 my two children are still diggin on the two Christmas mornings they have had each year since they were 4 and 6. I guess the double haul makes up for the divided family.
I will say, with Christmas coming so close after Thanksgiving, they are getting a little tired of green bean cassarole and have requested another veggie for Christmas dinner. After assuring me that mine is the best of course, and that it is nothing personal against my cooking. Didn't I raise socially correct kids?
Thank god for solitude x
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