Saturday, January 14, 2012

You can choose your friends . . .

but you can't choose your family.  That adage is an oldie but a goodie.

It's also wrong.  If you're married, you presumably chose your spouse.  And in choosing your spouse (unless he is a bona fide orphan) you were also choosing his family.  I suppose some families might be a deal breaker, but most of us figure that we can either put up with (good luck) or even change (yeah, right) the quirkier aspects of our spouse's family.

This evening I spent over five hours with my husband's family at a belated Christmas gathering in a Chicago suburb.  My husband spent the evening at a corporate get together at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  The only other member of my immediate family who was able to come with me to "Hawaiian Christmas" was K.  I am so glad that she was there to provide moral support when I needed it, ie. was tempted to throw up my hands or pull out my hair.

My in-laws are so different than my family.  I knew that going in to my marriage, but for some reason I really didn't think it would be a problem.

Was I wrong!  There were a few warning signals during our 11 month engagement, but I dismissed them as isolated anomalies.  Looking back, those warning signals should have been as loud as Robot in Lost in Space admonishing his young charge, "Danger, Will Robinson!"     

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