Home for the holidays? (Dysfunctions’ Expiration)
The holidays are the most common times to spend time with your family. Especially the ones you do not get to see as often. After talking with several friends, I realized that there were some common sentiments in regards to the amount of time that one is able to spend with distant but close relatives.
I felt a little guilty at first, but once I said it aloud to a few friends I discovered that I wasn’t alone. The bottom line was that we all agreed that we can only spend about 3 days tops at “home” (or wherever parents/siblings/and or family gather), and then it is time to go!
Funny thing that one of my friends pointed out was that just as you may think it- the family you are visiting is probably also saying and thinking the same of you! They just may be ready for you to go back wherever you call home as well.
From my conversations I learned that dysfunction had an expiration period. By this I mean that some people can only stand a limited amount of dysfunction before it’s time to retreat back to their normal existence. Needless to say, this is ok. As I was reassured of this by my friends, I felt obligated to share it with the rest of the world. So when you are contemplating if you should take your children around psycho dysfunctional aunt/uncle/cousin/crazy granny/grandpa/brother/sister ___________, (fill the name in the blank), don’t feel bad about not wanting to go or limiting your time to the minimum amount of dysfunction and chaos you can stomach.
To reassure me even further please feel free to share with us your “Home for the holidays” experience whether past or present. (You can be comforted knowing you can remain anonymous) We would really enjoy hearing about when you realized that your dysfunctional days had an expiration date.
Be So Blessed!
Love,
Jobi
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Great post and I can totally relate!
Over Thanksgiving this year, my 13 yr. old niece looks at during a family function and says “our family is just crazy.” Although I totally agree with her, I took this opportunity to talk with her about that statement. I let her know that many of her friends probably felt the same about their families. I used the very statement to her “Family makes us feel loved, and our friends make us feel normal.” Not sure she completely grasped the entire conversation at 13 but my prayer is she will understand we are not the only family with “crazy people” :)