Vacations/holidays with relatives

I am on one now. I could have handled a week, just, and for some reason I agreed to two. I'm seriously thinking of making up a work crisis and bailing early, and nothing that bad has even happened. It's just that I seem to have regressed to the age of 14.

Condolences. I passed on a vacation in a beautiful part of the country (along the Salmon River in Idaho) a few years ago because it would have involved going to a weeklong reunion of my dad's side of the family.

This is just... CLOSE... family. I'd rather have the hordes, for the variety, but thank you for your condolences.

Horror stories anyone?

I realise that 2 week's vacation is awesome, btw, and I should not be complaining.

I feel you ljubljana.

Haha that sounds a bit crepey. I feel for you

Now staying with friends of dad's in CO at their second home in a gated community, which has a club type thing nearby. Dad's partner (Brit sense of partner - i.e. 65-year-old-girlfriend) brightly and loudly started to explain this morning in the club that her grandson had to have an operation as his urethra is not properly connected to his penis. Our hostess smiled tightly and said 'we don't use that word in the club'.

As an adult I've been on two holidays with family.I've been on holiday with my dad for 3 weeks visiting the country he's from,I got extremely frustrated with him, but otoh was some quality time with the old man,in a setting he's most himself in (with old friends and family,speaking his native language,even if nowadays his english is the stronger of the two).

Also stayed in a villa for a week with parents and bro in spain.did feel about 10 but just read and floated on a lilo in a pool when I couldn't be bothered with them.altho any excursion was somewhat painful.

Today we ended up having cocktails at 1pm before lunch, and I experienced the shock that is parents-are-drunker-than-I-am.

did feel about 10 but just read and floated on a lilo in a pool when I couldn't be bothered with them.altho any excursion was somewhat painful.
This is about right.

I won't even ride more than 30 miles in the same car with my dad.

I never want to be in the same room as most of my relatives ever again, much less go on trips with them.

Quite the opposite in my case. I've reached the age at which their crochets and annoying shit doesn't bother me, and they're so cool that my friends like hanging out with them. It helps that they've discovered the joys of drinking the older they've gotten (they're a little past sixty).

My situation is a little different--My sister and brother pretty much despise me, and there's quite a bit of untreated mental illness in both my husband's and my family.

They keep banging on about intricate matters in British politics to our very patient American hosts in excruciating detail - they're very intelligent people and put my political nouse to shame, but they just have no sense whatsoever of when people's eyes have glazed over.

I dont think Ive ever gone on vacation with my parents as an adult - but I live a long way from them now so they often come here, and have sometimes stayed at my house (when I had a spare room/bed) which drove me to tears of frustration. My dad is casually/unintentionally racist, and I live somewhere a lot more multicultural than the town I grew up in/they still live in. And mum is just... she WORRIES so much. Everything is always something going amiss. But they mean well, so I cant get mad at them even though I do.

My dad is casually/unintentionally racist, And mum is just... she WORRIES so much.

I think we have the same parents!

Ha! One of the first times they visited my (very orthodox jewish) suburb, Dad declared aloud "look at all the Hymies!". Dear god.

I went to the Grand Canyon and Vegas with my mom and we had fun. We listened to the Jewel, the "lounge" station in Vegas while driving through the desert. My mom is disabled and complains sometimes but mostly we like the same stuff (gambling, cheese, scenic drives).

the only real 'vacation' i've taken with relatives was when my mom and her acquaintance visited me when i was living in alaska. my mom is kind of a hoarder whose default mode of existence is 'horribly busy' (though i'm never entirely sure with exactly what).

it actually turned out okay, perhaps because the acquaintance was kind of a psycho who desperately needed attention of any kind, obviating the family stuff. i did have to take any items of importance -- keys, ids, etc. -- away from my mother lest she lose them in her 10,000 pockets.

when i visit my parents now, i am struck by how incredibly inflexible they are. they, particularly my (step)dad, want only things they've done before and only in a certain fashion. i guess it's good to figure out what you like, but it's a little extreme. unfortunately i sense tendencies toward this in myself.

With my dad the inflexibility comes from the need for control, a plummeting appetite for risk and declining ability to notice anyone else's preferences unless stated as absolutes. His partner is laid-back and lets him do whatever suits him best. This worked very well for a long time, but I think even she is finding life with him increasingly stressful (though I've no doubt they're fundamentally ok). Why I didn't think about this before committing to the vacation I have no idea - maybe because I mostly see them at home in routines that hide the pattern a bit.

I can't look at my brother anymore without recalling what he pulled last Thanksgiving as he was stuffing the Turkey...

"We" married a very conservative family and are always having to censor ourselves and too many holidays have culminated with both sides snapping at each other. It's always a slur at my mom that she's been too permissive a parent.

He put on a Playlist of tasteful, family-friendly favorites, but just as the family was coming to table...out of the speakers comes,

"Why can't I get / just one fuck..."

And my brother acts like it's an accident and I act shocked and he runs to his phone to change the song.

Only the people on our side were laughing...

Just an idea.