Family & Friends

gunsandbanjos

After reading numerous threads over the last few days moaning and whining about perceived ills perpetrated by family & friends over the festive period I felt the need to post.

How thankful I am to have a lovely family who all behave like normal people
And fabulous friends who I love spending time with.

So much negativity on the boards lately, everybody needs to chill!

74jax

Totally agree, although my family don't all behave normally ha ha.

Christmas was very strange with dad just dying but my hubby and DD totally made Christmas and my birthday lovely for me.

Very happy Christmas here.

gunsandbanjos

74jax wrote: »

Totally agree, although my family don't all behave normally ha ha.

Christmas was very strange with dad just dying but my hubby and DD totally made Christmas and my birthday lovely for me.

Very happy Christmas here.

When I say normal I mostly mean they don't flounce about Jeremy Kyle style and air their dirty laundry on Facebook as seems to be the norm if the posts on here are anything to go by:eek:

So sorry to hear about your dad, one of my closest friends lost his dad recently and it's been hard for him.

How lovely that your family made your birthday and Christmas special.

Alikay

I always feel relieved (and a little bit smug ) that our family and friends, despite our varying views, values and norms, manage to conduct good functional relationships with each other. No screaming and shouting, shunning, squaring up to each other etc: We all just muddle along nicely with maybe just a quizzical look, shrug or grimace once in a while!:T

jackieblack

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

How thankful I am to have a lovely family who all behave like normal people

Me too (although everyone's definition of 'normal' is different )

Pollycat

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

So much negativity on the boards lately, everybody needs to chill!

I think this is a little unfair.

Some people have real reasons to post about things family/friends have done or not done, said or not said.
You're clearly lucky with your family & friends, others are just as clearly not so lucky and telling them they need to chill is, quite frankly, dismissive.

Like you, I'm lucky in my friends and (most of) my family but that doesn't mean I can't sympathise with someone who isn't in my position.

pigpen

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

After reading numerous threads over the last few days moaning and whining about perceived ills perpetrated by family & friends over the festive period I felt the need to post.

How thankful I am to have a lovely family who all behave like normal people
And fabulous friends who I love spending time with.

So much negativity on the boards lately, everybody needs to chill!

Indeed.. but my family are all freaks, I love them dearly, they are my freaks!

Mojisola

Alikay wrote: »

I always feel relieved (and a little bit smug ) that our family and friends, despite our varying views, values and norms, manage to conduct good functional relationships with each other. No screaming and shouting, shunning, squaring up to each other etc: We all just muddle along nicely with maybe just a quizzical look, shrug or grimace once in a while!:T

Mine, too but if any of my family acted like some of the people mentioned in threads, I (like Pollycat) would be glad there was somewhere I could let off steam away from the people involved.

Pollycat wrote: »

Some people have real reasons to post about things family/friends have done or not done, said or not said.

gunsandbanjos

Pollycat wrote: »

I think this is a little unfair.

Some people have real reasons to post about things family/friends have done or not done, said or not said.
You're clearly lucky with your family & friends, others are just as clearly not so lucky and telling them they need to chill is, quite frankly, dismissive.

Like you, I'm lucky in my friends and (most of) my family but that doesn't mean I can't sympathise with someone who isn't in my position.

I think you misunderstand, I'm sympathetic to genuine problems, I'm not sympathetic for example to someone grumbling that their mother in law had a negative net contribution to Christmas Day as per another thread on here.

I am very lucky that I have great friends and family, hence the positive post.

Just trying to balance out the negativity.

nearlyrich

I agree we have a blended family and we all get on well together and enjoy spending Christmas together. I would not spend time with people who made me want to scream or post bad stuff on facebook!

catoutthebag

The increase in extremism and pessimism on mse troubles me.