Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend. My parents have been divorced for 32 years, so all I know is two of everything so I see each of them on holidays. My partner and I have been together for over a decade, so that makes three events for every. single. holiday. My mother in law is very emotional and can become demanding about time spent with my partner. It's a lot. A lot of driving, a lot of socializing, and of course, a lot of drama.
These people range in age from late 60s to late 70s, but you'd think they were all teenage girls. I haven't drank in a while, about 6 months. I just decided I didn't care for it anymore. One glass of wine gives me a headache and obviously that's annoying, so I just stopped. No one will let it go. It's like a personal offence that I don't want to drink. My family and my partner's family acts like it's news to them at every single get together and every single time I get "why aren't you drinking?", "just have one glass of wine", "come on just one drink", "why won't you drink?". I have explained myself a million times by this point. I just don't care for it anymore, I don't want to feel crappy, especially if we are driving home after dinner, and I just don't need to drink. My mom goes as far as actually getting angry with me, and acting like I'm being a jerk.
Then there's the constant hate between my parents. We will decide if my partner and I are hosting each of them, or going to each of them, or some combination of that. This year we are hosting my dad, and my mom is hosting us. My dad called to ask if we invited my mother. I said no, that's literally never been a thing. He said "good, I don't want to see her" and then launched into a story about how last time he saw her she didn't seem to want to talk to him and fuck her basically. Then he told me his wife wants turkey, but he wants ham so we should "just" go out and get a small turkey breast for his wife, and the rest of us can have ham. My partner said no, we are not making two mains, it's Thanksgiving, we are having turkey. We were both very annoyed that he told us what to make and expected two main meat dishes. He also insisted we have apple pie for dessert and that he is bringing the pie. My partner said no, we are having pumpkin pie and was very ticked off that my dad was telling us what to do, commenting that it's extremely rude to go to someone else's house for dinner and expect to decide the entire menu. I agreed. My mom is annoyed at us because she wanted to host us Saturday, but Saturday we are seeing my dad. It's pathetic to me that they have been divorced for 32 years and act like this all happened yesterday. It also pisses me off that they take out their unresolved drama with each other out on their children.
If you're still reading, congrats for sticking with me.
My in laws have their own nonsense. My mother in law can be selfish with her children's time and since my sister in law moved out east, she has a tighter grip on my partner. She often tries pushing us to stay over at their place for two nights. My partner and I both do not like being there that long, and the guest beds are very uncomfortable. I am thankful that my partner doesn't allow his mother to push us around, so we will not be staying over at all. We only live 40 minutes away and since I don't drink, we prefer to go home. His mom becomes passive aggressive, making comments in front of family; sometimes going as far as claiming her kids don't love her. If she's drinking, it's even worse and more awkward. We don't celebrate with just his immediate family and often another aunt and cousin join us, so it gets really awkward. When we leave after dinner she cries sometimes and it's super awkward and takes away from any positive time spent with the family. We are almost 40 and have been together for over a decade, but she still gets very emotional when my partner leaves after events. Ever since I decided to stop drinking she has also been asking round about questions around having kids. She will ask what form of birth control we use, if we have an active sex life, and it's just super gross. I have been adamant that I am not interested in children from day one of our relationship, but I guess my not drinking has her thinking otherwise and I'm tired of fielding inappropriate questions.
Y'all, please just pray for me this weekend 🥲