Am I overdramatic or no?

[SMHW]

I sympathize. While I am not single and I have children I do have a single brother and I worry about him, especially this first Christmas that my mother is no longer around. My sister and I are trying to make sure he gets the attention and family time that he needs.

But while I sympathize, I still think that it makes more sense for those with young children to be at home and have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and older cousins do the visiting if we are taking about overnight visits or if the travel time is more than an hour or so.

Until you have small children I don’t think you can really appreciate how much it means to them to be in their own home on Christmas morning. If you are not getting invitations to the homes of your sibling you may need to be proactive and ask for an invite.

 

[agapewolf]

I was talking about in-town visits. I was not talking about Christmas morning travels.

Also, even though I don’t have children, I can appreciate being at home. I was one once. I have nieces and nephews.

Also, it isn’t a matter of being “pro-active” to get an invite. They were at their in-laws. I’m not inviting myself to my sister’s husband’s family house.

 

[Ruthie]

I was, and am blessed in both my own family and in-laws. I very much miss the Christmases we spent with my wonderful Grandma. But we spent 2 weeks at a time with her; it wasn’t a matter of packing the car, visiting for a few hours, and going home again. (We lived in DC and she lived in NYC.)

But I never had the sense of having to go. It was a joyful occasion. There was no emotional blackmail. No sense of it being a lot of trouble. Even when I was a rebellious teen!

I say, if the trouble of going outweighs the reasons to be there, don’t go. If you have to spend two hours packing the car, knowing that you and/or the kids won’t enjoy yourselves, don’t go. I’m not talking about being selfish, but about Christmas being a celebration. If it’s not a sharing of family love, and love for Jesus, then stay home where it is.

Even more strongly, I say that if the family, especially the kids, will be exposed to adults’ tantrums, bad behavior, and emotional blackmail, don’t go.

Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people… Luke 2:10 (RSV)

Heart of Jesus, delight of all saints, have mercy on us.

Ruthie

 

[dixieagle]

In no way are you overdramatic! I think it is very important for families with young children to establish their own Christmas traditions. It is also so much more difficult to pack up kids and haul them somewhere than for grandparents to come and visit.

I’ve got to admit, I have pangs of envy for families who are actually close enough to each other to visit for Christmas, etc. We’ve always lived 1500 miles from where we grew up (native New Englanders living in the deep south.) We have never had any family nearby, and I have always desperately missed the wonderful, big family Christmases I had growing up, with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. But, we ALWAYS had Christmas morning in our own home; it was never an issue. Our girls were fortunate in that my husband’s parents visited several times a year, including Christmas, so we weren’t completely alone. My parents hated travel, so, with very few exceptions, we had to travel on summer vacation to see them.

Anyway, you must do what works for your own family and maintains your sanity. Sounds as if it’s time to put your put down and stay home this Christmas.

 

[Greatmom126]

The thing is, I have OFFERED to have the family here…and they feel obligated to go to my sister’s house that she just moved into 6 mos ago. She lives like 15 min from me. Our plan is to go over for dessert on Christmas…and spend a couple hours there. My sister has no children (she is 27) and she has off white rugs.,.nothing is child friendly. I am not being anti-family…we would still visit, just try to be more wholesome with us together and not have any of the normal “drama” that usually comes with my family holidays.