Can't recall if I posted this or not, but the holiday weekend is coming up. Normally, we spend it with one relative or another. I normally don't care who, but it's OK. I only have one long afternoon to spend with relatives I like or sorta like doing nothing but eating and socializing (I rarely exchange gifts, because after I buy gifts for my friends and my sister and her child and my work friends, I'm usually broke and don't have the money for gifts for my half-brother and his wife and 4 nieces and nephews and cousins and aunts and uncles), but usually THEY can afford to give me gifts and they always treat dinner and never ask us to bring anything. So going over there, I always feel like the "poor relative", so I don't really care to.
This year, my cousins decided to start being more 'family' so they invited us for the holidays. Well, so did my brother. I was thinking OK, we spend Thanksgiving with one and Xmas with another.
Nope, my sister accepted all invitations - for both of us - and now my weekend is all but taken up with visits to relatives. That is not how I wanted to spend my long weekend.
Tonight when my sister called, I let her know I was only going to one relatives. She started instantly to get upset and I retorted, "What's wrong with that? So what if you're the only one to go? Nobody is making you..."
She was like "Fine, spend Xmas alone."
My sister has no hobbies. She socializes. That's her hobby.
So rather than feel guilty like she wants me to, hopefully she'll get the point that she shouldn't make plans for both of us without asking me first...but I doubt it. I think I'm just sick and tired of my decisions always being perceived as wrong or that my actions will make the difference for someone else's enjoyment and therefore I'm responsible if I don't make the effort to please someone else.
And it's not and I'm not. I'm not the "life of the party". I am not particularly close to my relatives. There is no reason in the world when I make my decision my sister couldn't just say "Oh, OK." instead of getting all over me like she did,
"So I get to go alone
again?"
Like that's some sort of awful thing and totally my fault she has to go through it or something.