The Humour Club discussion

I have had it with relatives. That’s the whole sad story. All but my Mom. I want to go into the woods and not talk to anyone for a week. I especially don’t want to listen to anyone.

What, you ask, has sparked this distaste for relations?

Start with a 4-week road trip, punctuated with 9 visits with friends and relations. Exactly two of whom were my friends, and ONE was the kind of friend with whom you can sit silently except for making random animal noises.

End that trip by moving into your in-laws’ house and trying to help them pack up and move out so you can move in.

Please pass me a drink. And another. And another.

Growing up, I had little in common with the NASCAR-loving, bible-banging side of my mother's family, yet we spent every holiday with them, while rarely seeing my dad's relatives. Many decades later, my living relations have dwindled down to a few cousins. The only ones I keep in touch with are all on, you guessed it - the paternal side of the family.

I prefer spending time with the family I created rather than the one I was born into.

But if you're getting a house out of the deal . . . I guess you'll just have to suffer.

Sorry you're so stressed. Have a double on me.

My relationship with my family improved dramatically after I moved 2100 miles away. Caller ID helps a lot.

Rebecca wrote: " I want to go into the woods and not talk to anyone for a week. I especially don’t want to listen to anyone.
"

Well, at least the big furry visitors with eight legs are not garrulous, nor will they pay much attention to what you say. To the woods!!!

Rebecca wrote: "Start with a 4-week road trip, punctuated with 9 visits with friends and relations..."

On your next trip, maybe you should pay more attention to the roadside billboards.

LOL, Jay!

To be clear, the visits were not individually painful. None of the relations were rabid MAGA types; they were in fact all pretty compatible with us. I just got tired of PEOPLE! And making conversation with people I don't know.

The home situation has improved as the "moving out" part of the deal is pretty well done, and we are gradually working on moving the REST of the stuff out/around so we can move our own stuff in. I can see it will be an uphill battle for my MiL to remember that it is now OUR house, not hers, and that I may not (will not) do things her way.

Melki--we are getting a good deal on the house, but we are buying it, not just moving in.