Anyone else ready to punch their family in the face? Rant here.

Ah, the holidays. A time for joy and thanks and spending time with family. And after about 15 minutes with your family, sometimes you feel like throttling them! Lol!

It always cracked me up on holidays when I was a cop. It was really quiet during the day. Then the liquor stores would open, and by the evening cuttings and domestic violence calls would start exploding.

Last night my folks didn't want the tv on in the living room, so I put the kids in a back bedroom to watch tv (my 7 yo, her 7 yo friend, and my 2 yo). My mom went back THERE and turned off the tv! "They don't HAVE to watch tv." Then complains when they made too much noise. Needless to say, we left. Hey...this is 2015, not 1915, they don't HAVE to play tiddly winks or read by candle light either. If putting on a cartoon helps keep them contained, then be grateful they're contained.

We tried to go back this morning and my mom started in with her crap again. I'm back home for the day and I just ate Ramen. Best meal ever because it didn't come with a side order of their BS.

I know it's only noon right now, but anyone else got a head start on the dysfunction?

It can be a stressful time. Way too many people congregate in a small space and are expected to be friendly to one another. People unused to being around different age groups are forced together. Children will not be entertained the same way adults are and tend to want to recreate their home environment. The energy level in the household is higher than normal. If pets are around they pick up on this and it gets even worse. And some people really don't want to be there at all.

But the fact is it's just for a few hours and then the majority of these people get to go home. If you keep reminding yourself there is a fixed time limit on this extra interaction, then it ought to be easier to take. If you can't even do that, perhaps you are a misanthrope and shouldn't be attending in the first place. If it REALLY bothers you to the point of thinking violence, do yourself and everyone else a favor and opt out.

a reply to: schuyler

Don't worry, it was total hyperbole. No matter how tempted I am I will not actually punch anyone!

Lmao!

originally posted by: ladyvalkyrie
a reply to: schuyler

Don't worry, it was total hyperbole. No matter how tempted I am I will not actually punch anyone!

Lmao!

I often want to punch family in the face.
And while it might be "hyperbole" to you.
For me, it is just one impulse away from
becoming reality.

Today is a day to be thankful for impulse
control. My father displayed and modeled
that for me all my life growing up, that
is the best gift he ever gave me.

Without self-control, I'd be in prison
and other people would be dead.

a reply to: ladyvalkyrie

Oh yes. The (sometimes) rolling domestics during the Holidays. Truly one of my favorite times to work the beat.... nothing like the indubitably (3/4 ingested) gallon of Jack followed by the case and a half of black-label light...

The best time of year to get $hit hammered flocking drunk and the beat the crap out of drunkle Mike and cussing Alex..... lol kinda miss those days....

Back on topic though, I prefer a nicely slightly well done thin crust oven cooked pie with a good scotch over the Famn Damily - any day of the year....

Happy Holla Dayz.....


p.s. it's a good time to catch up on the National Dog Show...

I'm not to the point of punching anyone......yet????? Give me just a few more hours and I will need a drink or five.

a reply to: ReadLeader

Babysittin' grown folks...gotta love it!

I just hated New Years and the 4th...gunshots EVERYWHERE and you could never find the source. Drove me nuts as a rookie. After a year or 2 it was just 'Meh, gunshots everywhere and I'll never find em..oh well. I guess we'll get a call when someone gets hit.'

I think the worst one I can remember for our family was the time we went to my dad's side. My mom is no kitchen maven. She hates to cook, and my dad's mom was a domestic goddess type. So her daughters, of course, were so trained. It was "understood" that my mother could not be trusted to make or bring anything except the red cinnamon Jell-O salad for years.

Well, one year, something went wrong with the salad and it refused to set up.

I remember my older cousin snidely telling my aunt that if she could get some money she'd go to the store and get some stuff to "make it right" right there in front of my mom, and after that, no one ever asked my mom to bring anything again and there were always comments about around here about how hard it was to get the meal on the table and how short-handed they were in the following years.

Fortunately, that situation has taken care of itself as time is wont to do. Now, the family angst belongs to my sister with her husband's family, and that's a load of mess I won't go into.

a reply to: ladyvalkyrie
I'm glad I live a long ways from nearest relative. Don't feel like a long distant drive and sure not going to put up with the nonsense at the air port. Have frozen dinner to nuke later.

Went to store yesterday and a lot of folks were leaving with six to eight twelve packs. It's just starting to get noisy in the neighborhood and I expect it to escalate into the morning hours.

a reply to: ladyvalkyrie

Lmao. My 10yrs. Motto "less is more" the rookies were always taking the good calls... I became proficiently adapt on signal 30s and petty theft....

After all, it's just about like dating..the younger the better... It is a young mans/woman's game...

4th of July...ha ha every squad car in my city was underneath an overpass for several hours. It was the safest place to be... it took a few years to distinguish hammer bombs from 223 or 1911 rounds....

My favorite was always Saint Patty's Day. My backseat went from blue to green and would stay that way for months you gotta love amature night on the town lol

a reply to: ReadLeader

St Paddys...bwahahahahaha...."We got a white male suspect last seen wearing a green shirt, possibly intoxicated."


* And I was in Dallas, where they have a parade on Greenville, needless to say about 2,000 guys met that description- all packed in a 3 block radius.

a reply to: ketsuko

If I were your mom, I would have made it right. Right up her arse.

a reply to: ladyvalkyrie

My family gets along great!

Our secret?

We all live in different time zones.

Happy Thanksgiving!

a reply to: ladyvalkyrie

Bwha ha ha ha... it goes on and on. We have a male...wait..stand by...female...uhgmm suspect six foot tall with green hair he's carrying a purse & a weapin... or ughmm maybe a bat or batton.... Oh wait the Gay Pride parade took place the same day the last few years yeah it's awesome glad I'm out for good lol

a reply to: ReadLeader

Hahahahaa!! I got a report returned one time because I checked 'unknown' on gender of the comp. It totally LOOKED like a female, but then the suspect called it 'he'. ????? When I went to correct the report I told them I honestly didn't know. The boobies looked real...scratch that, the boobies WERE real, but I have no idea what was hiding under the skirt.

I told them if we aren't supposed to check 'unknown' then they shouldn't have had it as an option. I wasn't trying to be cute I REALLY did not know.

PS The crime was a pimp slap. Not even kidding. Lmao!


* Along those lines we were looking for a stolen car...some descriptions said 'grey' some said 'green'...it ended up being an army drab kind of color that looked green in some light and grey in other light. Note to self- if you want cops to find your car when it's stolen be sure it's an easily recognizable color.

a reply to: ladyvalkyrie

As you know, I am British, so although I raise a glass to those across the ocean on Thanksgiving, the whole thing passes me by like so much atmosphere does on a daily basis. Sometimes, when I am in a hale and hearty mood, I will even toast that as it passes through and around me.

But family gatherings are interesting for me. My family is a strange construction by some standards, consisting of more family who do not share genetic heritage with me, than family who do. You see, my experience has taught me that blood is not as important as unity. If you gather about yourself people who matter to you, and remove from your immediate vicinity those upon whom you would not urinate in order to extinguish in the event of them tragically finding themselves on fire, you find that the family which results from that does not fight, does not argue, but binds together under stress, and knows how to chill when peace is upon you all.

My mother, my sister, my brother in law, my buds, their buds, our buds... We are family because we behave like one, and that is what counts. I do not speak with my grandmother on my fathers side, because she is a toxic, hateful, wizened turd from the rectum of Satan, who made my mothers life hell to the point of clinical depression when I was five. I do not speak to my father and have not done since I was eighteen or so, because he was seven kinds of a bastard, and eighteen kinds of useless, and frankly is the worst advert for manhood that I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. I value instead the people who value me, who value my people, all of them.

As a result, I have no familial problems, because in all things, we are one another's familial solution. We are bound not by blood and obligation, but by love for one another and determination to see those we love upheld, no matter the darkness which may assail us, nor the tribulations which might befall us. Spirit binds us, and it is stronger than blood.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Glad to see you chime in TrueBrit, I always am a fan of your posts!

And you're 110% correct (as usual) blood means nothing, the family you make for yourself is usually your best bet. I took a hiatus from my parents for a full decade because they -like your Satan's turd of a grandmother (lmfao btw)- are toxic and it was so much better for my sanity. But here I am, trying to be the bigger man. And here I am, getting kicked in the nuts yet again.

I recently found out I'm pregnant and was going to make the announcement over the holiday dinner. Not because it's such a touchy feely happy occasion, but because there would be multiple witnesses and I figured my folks would be forced to act like humans. Oh well. I guess they'll figure it out for themselves in a few months.

Drink a pint for me, mate!

a reply to: ladyvalkyrie

I know this feeling well.
I won't punch any one of them, but if I had a guarantee that they wouldn't call the police, I'd consider it.

a reply to: ladyvalkyrie

Two things I have to say in response to your post.

Your blood does not obligate you to put up with sub par behaviour on the part of your relatives. If they are causing you issues, to the point where you cannot even announce your pregnancy with any hope of a sane, and healthy reaction from them, then with the greatest respect for where you came from my dear, you may just be wasting your time, if you are spending it with those folks.

All of that aside, pushed well out of view where it belongs, let me congratulate you on your pregnancy, and wish you every bit of luck during the gestation of your new little one! I hope and pray that much joy and gleefulness spread themselves across the path your little one will take in life, and that the only joy comparable, is to be found in your ability to watch them grow and live in that happiness. Blessings upon you, and upon your unborn child!