Hey, everyone!
I really need help navigating this. I go through this every year. I know this isn’t second trimester related, but I am in my second trimester, so that counts, right?!
The holidays stress me out beyond belief. Mine and my hubby’s family are both local. Some would say this makes it easier. I personally find that it makes it more difficult to equally divide time with family members during the holidays!
For example, MIL is cooking on Thanksgiving Day. I politely asked my parents if we could do our Thanksgiving another day to accommodate. They were fine with that. MIL said my family could join on Thanksgiving (this usually entails my brother and parents). Except that this year, my brother has a girlfriend living with him that would need to come and my grandmother moved here, so that’s 5 extra people total. I asked my MIL if that was okay because obviously we didn’t want to leave those two out, and I assured her that if it was too many people it was fine and they’d understand. She said to have them come and it was good, but hubby told me she seemed a little stressed about accommodating that many extra. And now I just feel kind of bad because I feel like my family is imposing on their family Thanksgiving. I know they were invited, but still. I feel like my MIL is just being nice.
We will go through the same thing on Christmas. Hubby’s entire family usually comes and I love spending time with them and really enjoy the big family setting. I still spend time with my parents, too, but I feel like they get their feelings hurt if I only spend a few hours there, even with it just being the few of us.
I feel like this stress will only get worse as our baby arrives and we try to spend time with all family members. How do you all navigate this? Am I stressing myself out for no reason?
I really need help navigating this. I go through this every year. I know this isn’t second trimester related, but I am in my second trimester, so that counts, right?!
The holidays stress me out beyond belief. Mine and my hubby’s family are both local. Some would say this makes it easier. I personally find that it makes it more difficult to equally divide time with family members during the holidays!
For example, MIL is cooking on Thanksgiving Day. I politely asked my parents if we could do our Thanksgiving another day to accommodate. They were fine with that. MIL said my family could join on Thanksgiving (this usually entails my brother and parents). Except that this year, my brother has a girlfriend living with him that would need to come and my grandmother moved here, so that’s 5 extra people total. I asked my MIL if that was okay because obviously we didn’t want to leave those two out, and I assured her that if it was too many people it was fine and they’d understand. She said to have them come and it was good, but hubby told me she seemed a little stressed about accommodating that many extra. And now I just feel kind of bad because I feel like my family is imposing on their family Thanksgiving. I know they were invited, but still. I feel like my MIL is just being nice.
We will go through the same thing on Christmas. Hubby’s entire family usually comes and I love spending time with them and really enjoy the big family setting. I still spend time with my parents, too, but I feel like they get their feelings hurt if I only spend a few hours there, even with it just being the few of us.
I feel like this stress will only get worse as our baby arrives and we try to spend time with all family members. How do you all navigate this? Am I stressing myself out for no reason?
