Anyone else have difficult family members?

[Baron Von Crowder]

My MIL is a little abrasive at times, but generally a nice person. My mom is extra difficult to deal with most all the time, and her husband is right there with her. Ive had to kick them out of family christmas a few years back due to their attitudes.

I grew up hating holidays due to family tensions, so I have strong feelings about people playing nice together and being cordial, or they are unwelcome.

I got into a facebook discussion earlier, and found that I have 3-4 friends that have the same issue, so it got me wondering if this is widespread?

[Sean88gt]

I've chilled out and have grown to just deal with them. I struggle at times with my sister and her constant misrepresentations of history/bullshit for the sake of being the center of attention. But she lives in Boston and I see her about once every 18 months, so there is that.

Other than that, yes, there are family members, but most have largely decided I should fully fuck off as I tend to call them out on bullshit that everyone deals with in hopes that they get a cut of the estate, while I couldn't give a shit less.

[Craizie]

Yep. I give them passive aggressive gifts. Like the $10 "extra" gift cards they give you if you order X amount in other gift cards, but they can't be used until the year after.

Or my one Uncle used to shop exclusively at home depot and only wanted their gift cards. Then one year they sponsored some gay pride parade and he swore them off. Now he only wants Lowes gift cards... I still give him Home depot cards and do the " Oh, I forgot" thing every year when he mentions it.

[bcoop]

My immediate family is awesome. My sister's husband is great. All of us get along great except for one person. My brother's wife, is, well, difficult... She's sweet, when she wants to be. She's just very judgy. She has an opinion about everything. She thinks the world owes her something. And she's usually in a bad mood.

2 of her kids are pretty great now that they're older. One is exactly like her. He's an unappreciative, rude, inconsiderate little prick. I won't engage my sister in law when she's in her mood, but I damn sure do her son. It pisses her off, but I don't give a fuck. I won't tolerate lip or attitude from a shitheel entitled little brat of a 15 year old.

[jluv]

I'm pretty lucky. My in-laws are good-hearted people. Definitely annoying at times, but nothing I can't shrug off. My mom's side of the family is hardcore Aggie, Southern Baptist, Republican, but other than the 5-minute long prayer before we eat, they don't bother me, either. My dad is cool, but the other relatives on that side are mostly liberal knuckleheads who hate guns and love Hillary, so I just avoid those topics, and all is well. I really don't have any "difficult" family members. We all enjoy the holidays and make the best of our time together.

[Rreemo]

Let me just say....yes.

[Rick Modena]

As you can see, you are not the only one. Everyone has issues, some more than others. My SIL is the type that loves doing/volunteering things for everyone and then bitches about it the entire time. I thought I had the greatest FIL but, I found out during this past summer that I'm not perfect, which I thought in his eyes I was every bit of that. He embarrassed my wife and I at dinner with relatives from NY. I'm to the point that I do the Denny deal, get in and out, say as little as possible and get back to the safety of my home...

[Baron Von Crowder]

We have family gatherings at my house.

[BLAKE]

Parents can be good at pushing buttons. I get WTF moments out of mine from time to time, but overall, they're wonderful people and I surely can't complain. Neither me nor my wife come from large families, so that helps.

We did have to divorce ourselves from her aunt/uncle/cousin because they were more trouble than they're worth. Simple-minded and dramatic. Leaving them behind was easy.

Edit: to add some explanation, we just drew a hard line with that extended family. We told my wife's parents that we didn't have room in our lives for those assholes and they more or less agreed. The ultimatum was, if they're going to be there, we (and their grand daughter aren't). We won.

[Stephen]

My in laws live in Brazil.. No problem here lol

[Rick Modena]

We have family gatherings at my house.

I used to host at my home for years, like for 13 yrs, but no one would shut the fuck up during the Cowboy game, i'd turn up the volume and so would they, mostly the Hens. So I finally put a stop to that two years ago, now we go to my SIL's house in Coppell, we eat at 2:00pm and after dessert, I exit stage left and head back to Collin county...

[Baron Von Crowder]

I used to host at my home for years, like for 13 yrs, but no one would shut the fuck up during the Cowboy game, i'd turn up the volume and so would they, mostly the Hens. So I finally put a stop to that two years ago, now we go to my SIL's house in Coppell, we eat at 2:00pm and after dessert, I exit stage left and head back to Collin county...

Ours is mostly due to necessity and space. We are the only ones in the family (hers and mine) that have kids, so the grandparents come to us so everyone can be there, and we dont have to load the kids up to go to everyone's place. We've got the house with space for everyone. Guys can go upstairs to the theater room to watch the game, and the hens can hen downstairs.

[mstng86]

My family(Hispanic side) gets along really well and every generally has a good time together at the holidays. We usually try to find events to get together. So its a positive experience for us and the kids.

My wife's family....that's another story. They seem to not really like each other. Its all small talk and no real content in any conversation and its like pulling teeth to get any fun. We get out of those gatherings quickly. Hell we aren't even seeing them this year.

[Scott Mc]

There is a handful of people in my family I can stand. The rest of them is a bonus for me to make sure they act a fool. It can get very entertaining to say the least.

[FunFordCobra]

I'm doing thx giving and xmas alone this year for the first time in 35 yrs. Not looking so bad lmao.