It's no secret that I don't think you should hang around toxic relatives, even if it is the holidays. Have the strength to cut your losses and create a family that loves you, I say.
But sometimes it's not so black and white. Sometimes, we may be uncomfortable around our family, but still love them. We may be struggling for acceptance during a new phase of our life or we may just not have the relationship we really want - but that doesn't mean we want to walk away.
Or you may care very much for some family members, but seeing them means you have to see toxic relatives you'd rather ignore.
What to do?
A Better You Blog offers this article on "How to Get Along with Family." I particularly like Number 2, which reminds you to Be Protective - to guard your children, yourself and your heart. The others aren't bad, but I think this is the one we actually forget in our rush to "get along."
You can also read my blog entry on Toxic Relatives from Thanksgiving, which offers a few more links on dealing with toxic family members.
Family | Surviving the Holidays
2 comments:
I am spending 5 days with my family this season in Wales. Deep down I would prefer 5 hours but I do it to please my mum.
I sometimes have dark feelings and want to through a shoe at my brother in law for his lack of emotion and engagement.
what would you suggest I do?
This is a very helpful article for my brother’s wife who has a very tough time still when she visits her parents. I will send it to him and I’m sure they will get something out of it. I was looking for gift ideas for in-laws and this came up and I found it interesting. I have a hard time with my parents in-law talking about the same thing for an hour straight which isn’t abusive but it sure is difficult to handle. Ever since I gave them a DISH Network Sling Adapter like my employee model so they could watch TV on their phone and laptop when they are in the RV they never stop talking about it. I’m not sure which is worse, hearing about how much they love the Sling Adapter or hearing them talk about the news and forgetting they already told me about a horrible murder already.
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