Only Child
Tammi's post got me thinking about the upcoming holidays and the pressure that goes along with them.
I am an only child. My parents absolutely 'rely' on us to complete their holiday. The pressure is incredible. We go up there on Christmas Eve, spend the day and night at their house because they have a big shindig with all the Aunts and Uncles & Cousins. By the time everybody leaves on Christmas Eve, it is usually too late to open presents from my folks, so they pressure us to spend the night and open presents in the morning. I never had a problem with that till we had Shorty, and we want him to open his presents here at home on Christmas morning. Another trouble with the presents in the morning is that they buy us about 3 hours worth of presents to be opened. Minimum. There are a couple of break times in there because we get burned out on opening presents, no kidding. Sadly, most of the stuff they get for us adults is stuff I won't use because it is knick-knacks and junk, but that's another story entirely. We are their Christmas. I have been telling my folks to knock it off with the presents for the adults for a couple of years now. One year we had to leave most of our presents there because we couldn't fit it all in the STATIONWAGON. I don't want that kind of Christmas anymore. When I was a kid, oh Hell yeah, but now......
Point is, I have a hard time with the guilt of getting hundreds of dollars worth of presents, having to try to get them to stop it with all those presents, and having to sit at their house for Christmas when we really just want to be at home and play with Shorty. I want to be able to cut them off somehow, but I don't want to hurt their feelings because I know they will just sit there on Christmas all by themselves and not enjoy it at all. That is how they are. They will mope. I also don't want to seem like an ingrate about the presents. It is hard to be diplomatic about it.
I have already broken away from them for Thanksgiving, that was a lot easier being the family celebration is at an Aunts house, and there are no damn presents involved. They don't like it one bit, but they got over it. I am still a little stuck with the Christmas deal, and I wish I had some brothers or sisters to ease the burden. It is just us. And it sucks.
I am an only child. My parents absolutely 'rely' on us to complete their holiday. The pressure is incredible. We go up there on Christmas Eve, spend the day and night at their house because they have a big shindig with all the Aunts and Uncles & Cousins. By the time everybody leaves on Christmas Eve, it is usually too late to open presents from my folks, so they pressure us to spend the night and open presents in the morning. I never had a problem with that till we had Shorty, and we want him to open his presents here at home on Christmas morning. Another trouble with the presents in the morning is that they buy us about 3 hours worth of presents to be opened. Minimum. There are a couple of break times in there because we get burned out on opening presents, no kidding. Sadly, most of the stuff they get for us adults is stuff I won't use because it is knick-knacks and junk, but that's another story entirely. We are their Christmas. I have been telling my folks to knock it off with the presents for the adults for a couple of years now. One year we had to leave most of our presents there because we couldn't fit it all in the STATIONWAGON. I don't want that kind of Christmas anymore. When I was a kid, oh Hell yeah, but now......
Point is, I have a hard time with the guilt of getting hundreds of dollars worth of presents, having to try to get them to stop it with all those presents, and having to sit at their house for Christmas when we really just want to be at home and play with Shorty. I want to be able to cut them off somehow, but I don't want to hurt their feelings because I know they will just sit there on Christmas all by themselves and not enjoy it at all. That is how they are. They will mope. I also don't want to seem like an ingrate about the presents. It is hard to be diplomatic about it.
I have already broken away from them for Thanksgiving, that was a lot easier being the family celebration is at an Aunts house, and there are no damn presents involved. They don't like it one bit, but they got over it. I am still a little stuck with the Christmas deal, and I wish I had some brothers or sisters to ease the burden. It is just us. And it sucks.
posted by Sarah at
10:00 AM
