Married Parents not sitting together...

like2beoutside · May 2014

Hello, I'm not really sure where to begin. My parents who have been married for 42 years just completed their portion of the seating arrangement and they are not sitting together. They say it's because they don't want to split anyone up and they are concerned about the "dynamic" at the tables. I tried discussing it with them which resulted in a lot of yelling. My Dad recently had to spend a few days in a hospital and I don't think he's receptive to hearing other opinions right now. The whole thing is making me feel very sad.

kmmssg · May 2014

If DH and I had to take one for the team to keep from splitting guests in an uncomfortable way we would do it. Is this purely driven from caring for guests comfort?

like2beoutside · May 2014

I think it's over-caring. They seem to think that their friends who traveled from TX will not be ok sitting without either my Mom or Dad at the table. Their friends from TX are lively out-going people who will have no problem. This is also a destination wedding and everyone will be spending quite a bit of time together anyways.

AddieCake · May 2014

It's unusual, but if they want to do it, there is certainly no harm.

HisGirlFriday13 · May 2014

If it was their suggestion, let it go. If they want to do it, that's fine.

kmmssg · May 2014

This is not a hill you need to die on. Kudos to your parents for being so attentive to the guests! I know it is outside of the norm of what you see or expect, but this is truly no biggie whatsoever.

Maggie0829 · May 2014

If they want to sit separately then let them. Sitting separately does not make them any less married. I really don't see the issue here.

Hysilvinialithibel · May 2014

We did this and it worked really well. My husband's parents are divorced so we sat my mom with his mom and my dad with his dad (plus the rest of the table full of people that would work well with them). It's odd your parents are yelling about it but it can be a lot of work to get the seating chart perfect so maybe they don't want to work on it again.