Of course, here it is another holiday and yet again family members cancelling at the last minute or not showing up at all. I could of told you this would happen this Easter (and any other family holiday) last year. Although, I was hoping for my mom's sake I would be wrong. I live with my mom (and dad but he's more of a roommate) as I'm currently her caretaker as she had a stroke 3 years ago. We spent the last week (we being because I have to take her everywhere) buying groceries preparing for a huge dinner with multiple family members, my mom, by herself, single-handedly spent over $200 of her measly $700 a mo. Social Security for this month ordering special meats catered from our local BBQ place, the rest on groceries. While I spent (with her helping with what she could) roughly 10 hours yesterday preparing dishes for today. Of course I wanted to try and coerce her ahead of time everyone is going to flake on us, and not to waste our time and money, but she wouldn't believe it (or want to) anyways. Then around 8 am the phone calls start coming in..."Oh we can't make it, one of our friends is having a birthday party for her daughter that we said we'd go to." Another "Oh, we're at Six Flags right now, yeah we decided we just would go to the theme park for the day and go stop at some restaurant later tonight afterwards. Enjoy your dinner, Happy Easter!" Reason after reason. Of course now, today, we have food to feed roughly...12+ people? And still have left-overs..Now it's literally just us 3 (mom, dad, me.) I'm not even done freaking cooking for the day. Most of the family members haven't seen us (especially our mom) in months. This isn't something new, but every-time my mom is so gullible for them (they're her kids, so yeah) and truely believes they're going to show up. She even went out of her way to buy stuff to make mini-Easter baskets for the grandkids that are just setting on a table in the living room now. I can personally say I'm not sad nor upset, I know my family, I know how they operate. If they needed a loan or something they'd have no problems calling us up and visiting. I'm just personally heartbroken for my mom, and my dad is visibly upset but he's not the type to be emotional or anything. Happy Easter. :dry:
I'm sooo sorry this happened. Family dynamics are strange at best with most families in the US. Mom says years ago family functions and gatherings were more important than they are today. Changing times, people, schedules... priorities? Tell your mom I said Happy Easter and that goes for you and your dad as well!
Oh trust me I can relate. One cousin of mine had the nerve to show her face at Easter dinner today, and boy was that awkward. My dad's sister-in-law is in the hospital again, as she has a chronic blood clot disorder. Her daughter dropped out of high school three weeks before she was supposed to graduate to run away with some loser just to spite her parents. She came back pregnant, and lived rent-free on their couch for six years. Then when they told her that she couldn't have friends over while my aunt and uncle were in Minnesota at the Mayo Clinic, she packed up her car, stole the family Xbox, and ran away to her pedophile loser ex boyfriend. She got pregnant by some random guy, the two of them are now pointing fingers, and after telling her parents they'd never see their grandson again, she ran back home and is living rent-free on their gravy train again. So she's about to plop another baby on their doorstep for her dying mother and overworked father to raise because of her sheer immaturity and irresponsibility. I can't help but wonder how many more kids my aunt and uncle will have to raise because she's such an immature see-you-next-Tuesday. My uncle looks like he's about to drop from sheer exhaustion and my aunt spent yet another holiday in the hospital. And she had the nerve to show her face around here.
Why are you complaining? You won't have to socialise if they don't show up. My familly (grandparents, cousins, etc.) were here today and I basically just hid behind my guitar all the time to avoid talking to anybody.
I can relate to this thread because when my late partner was alive, his family had embraced me and included me with all of their family events, holidays,etc. Although he knew of my situation with my family, he talked me into trying one last time to have a dinner in order to invite them over to break bread so to speak. I was reluctant initially, and then managed to come up with the courage to call them up and invite them over for dinner. Surprisingly, all whom were contacted had agreed to come. Therefore, he and I spent the whole week prior to that weekend gathering everything we needed in order to make this a special occasion. Throwing dinner parties were one of his specialties which he took great pride in and needless to say that the final results were amazing. However, an hour prior to the dinner, each one of them started calling me and cancelling at the very last minute. We had all of this food, wine, champagne, etc. and yet, they waited until the last minute to cancel. I tried to hide my emotions, but my partner knew me so well and could feel my pain without me saying a word. I also felt his disappointment as well because some of my family members had spoken to him over the phone and told him they were looking forward to finally meeting him in person. I went into the bedroom and fell across the bed and my partner disappeared and came back with our friends and we turned a horrible evening into a fun filled dinner party. The irony was that a few weeks later, one of my siblings had threw a barbecue at her home and everyone showed up except me. Afterwards, other family members threw family events and all of them showed up to those as well except me. So, it was very apparent what was going on but at least I knew where I stood with all of them and set boundaries for myself.
