family differences, pt 2

hmonkey

so this weekend, we are going to see the inlaws, all of them.  i am dreading this mildly because i find them exhausting.

my family is generally very quiet.  we can go the whole day with a couple dozen words, mostly in polite conversation and generally focused on meals (when and where).  my parents do like to get all up in our bidness about why we should buy a house, but they're not all "or else" about it.

dh's family talks all day long, fil especially.  and it's about absolutely everything -- politics (uncomfortable), what we are doing right now, what we are doing with our lives, where we should go, and on and on.  sometimes i play a little game where i measure the lulls in coversations and make guesses as to the next one. 

add to this my general impatience with bil and all the nonsense he and his family engage in (arriving late, leaving early, us having to do whatever they want because they have The Grandchildren), and i am in for a long weekend.  a long weekend.

man, i wish i had a goat to sacrifice or something.

**O-Face**

What happens when you guys have chirrens?

zsazsa-stl

Don't worry, pretty soon you will be able to lord over them all with the threat of withholding their newest grandchild.

*Candi*

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_wedding-woes_family-differences-pt-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:47Discussion:a0cff871-c83c-4919-a1aa-f5c161172a83Post:027237ae-f8c1-4e7e-9834-331ee085c1cb">Re: family differences, pt 2</a>:
[QUOTE]Don't worry, pretty soon you will be able to lord over them all with the threat of withholding their newest grandchild.
Posted by zsazsa-stl[/QUOTE]

<div>
</div><div>^this</div>

hmonkey

i doubt bil and co will care.  they lead their own lives and probably will say things like, "it's easier for you; try handling toddlers!" or some other thebump nonsense.

as for our chirren, i'd like to think we'd take a page out of sophie's parents' book, leave the kid cooped in a room all day, bound by a baby gate and take off for the day.

here's an example of my annoyance at bil and co: we are in ca, in various hotels.  everyone has their own list of restaurants they want to try while they are out there.  we all agree on one that has excellent reviews, is family friendly, can accomodate large crowds, will promise to have, hold and keep our beer cold. 
anyhoo, we make reservations and go about our business, returning to our hotels for an afternoon nap.  bil and co calls all of us, and tells us that The Grandchildren are tired and don't want to do a big dinner (last meal of the visit, btw).  therefore, we all have to eat at their hotel restaurant.
so we all drive around town and go to their hotel restaurant, which is very la.  it has a tiny menu and no children's menu, so bil and sil end up ordered buttered noodles for the kids, and try to feed squirming toddlers spaghetti (not easy).  they leave halfway through the meal to just put the kids to bed.
i am irritated that we cancelled dinner plans, drove halfway across town in hellacious la traffic to have the dinner that they wanted and they just leave halfway through it. 

and they do this schnit all the time.  i guess i should be happy that their travel plans always involve them arriving late and leaving early (they srsly do thanksgiving from thurday midday to sunday morning).

**O-Face**

And here I thought Thanksgiving was just one day.

hmonkey

yes, thanksgiving is one day, but if you're schlepping the kids across country once a year, you'd think you would make it worth your while and stay a day, or at least long enough to adjust to the time difference.

**O-Face**

True, I understand what you're saying now.

loveshine1

OMG. I would not have been ok with that. How do they get to decide what the entire family does while on their vacation?

DH would have flipped out and we would have eaten where we wanted to. Maybe FIL and MIL would have gone, and they'd no doubt whine that we weren't participating, but it would be tough.