It’s all relative…
So, I’ve had family in town recently. My sister was in town for a few days, as well as an uncle of mine that I only see once every few years, usually. So cute to see my boys hanging out with my uncles!!!
Anyway, whenever there’s a relative of mine in town, we pretty much hold off on scheduling anything else until we know what the plans are with my family. That’s how it’s been since I was a kid. Whether we had family visiting, or whether we were visiting family, everyone dropped everything they could to be there to share time together. Aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone.
So, of course, I marry someone with pretty much an opposite experience to mine. It’s not that his family doesn’t share time together, it’s that there’s just not much family. Now that his parents have moved back to town, the only family that visits is his aunt. It’s easy enough to drop everything for the once a year she comes to town.
I’ve tried not to expect Bald Man to drop everything when my family comes to town. He’s more than willing to, and always gets on well with what ever family member he’s with. I’m pretty sure he’s been to more of my family weddings than his. And while I put my life on hold when family comes to town, I try to keep Bald Man’s family commitments to a minimum. Or…at least not to a maximum.
What about you? When your spouse’s family comes in town, do you drop everything so that you can both hang out with them? Does it depend on the family member? Do you say, “forget it, we’re busy!”?
Tags: family, mom, mom blog, relatives, visitsPOSTED IN: General
3 opinions for It’s all relative…
akakarma
Jul 19, 2008 at 8:07 am
It depends! There are different kinds of visits for different things and different amounts of notice for them. As a busy family, unless we get notice, they kind of tag along with us- which is actually fun I think. If we get notice we try to leave as much time open as possible- altho I find I tend to do more of that than my H. And when I go to others homes I don’t expect them to drop everything for me but appreciate some time devoted just to my visit somehow!
Andrea K
Jul 22, 2008 at 9:02 pm
If family of friends from out of town are visiting JUST me - and they’ve planned the visit in advance - we drop everything and spend time with them. I would expect the same when visiting them. We are all busy - but if someone is making a special once a year visit it’s awful for them to have to tag along on daily grind/routine - when they’ve left theirs behind to visit you! (Particularly annoying to have to go to their kids games/practices when your kids had to miss theirs for the visit!)
akakarma
Jul 23, 2008 at 6:41 am
Reading Andre’s comment made me realize- when I say tag along I don’t mean grocery shopping and laundry stuff but I would say kids practices since I do think some of my folks would consider that fun. However, my h’s family grew up with his being gone away to school often so they really don’t drop everything for us either- sometimes to our disappointment!
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