Oh, ditto. I'm dealing with it right now in the form of disappointed parents who can't understand why on earth we want to move so far away from themmmmmm.

Tell them that it's the same reason that they decided to move to North Carolina half of the year.

Tell them that it's the same reason that they decided to move to North Carolina half of the year.

suh-NERK

I'll let Lewis share that with them at the appropriate moment. On the other hand, it's turned my mother's attitude around because now, knowing that Lewis' parents are kind of disappointed and angry about the move, she gets to be the reasonable and supportive parent.

Go figure.

Or Claudio and Hero.

The last time I saw the Kenneth B-something or other movie, I couldn't help thinking, it's Wilson and that Vampire chick.

Sunil, Part of that stuff was about me, my brother, and our family crap. I mean, we may always have different...posting ethics and whatnot, but you remind me of my brother(Which is not in any way a *complete* burn(grin), my brother is smart, and responsible, and a lot of other things that a sister might want her brother to be, but the things about him that push my buttons are things that you appear also to have/do.) Which might be funnier if I wasn't having similar dinner conversations on an irritatingly frequent basis. Getting it in "stereo" just felt like "Oh, HELL, no. Not here, too." Which you couldn't know, even if I hadn't just figured it out. So, dude, I'm sorry about that, and that you have a German-American doppleganger who's six-four, also not great with women, and who has a sister with a big mouth. White people family crap isn't any more fun, though, I swear. You dodged me as a big sister at least.

They still don't know we're planning a wedding.

Whoa, seriously? That's going to be exciting when they get the invitation. Or however you tell them.

My husband's family is like that and I guess it works for them, but I'll never get used to it. In my family, we might not give each other big news but it's usually because we thought we already did or didn't realize it was big news or were just that absent-minded.

Conversations like this make me really appreciate my mom and dad, I tell you what.

I could tell my dad anything. Mom, not so much. There's a lot of omission and some flat out lying. Basically, if I tell the truth, I'm going to be unhappy. If I lie, I am happy and she is happy. Works for me.

I'm pretty sure, now that I think about it, that my whole family thinks my brother is in China right now. Which he is not. We are very hit and miss with the communicating.

That's going to be exciting when they get the invitation.

Heh. Yeah. We're working out how to broach this one. Basically, The Girl said we were engaged, and their response was "Don't invite us." We've decided they don't get that get-out clause, though, 'cos we think they should have to look at an invitation and make a decision. Especially as TG's grandmother and brothers are coming.

My husband's family is like that and I guess it works for them, but I'll never get used to it.

I'm not the most tell-all person when it comes to my family, admittedly. We have great catch-up sessions where I tell them lots, but in between, I only talk to them once every couple of weeks, and they definitely don't get every detail of my life. I think some people are just more reserved about details than others with family, though. My friends, conversely, get every single moment of my life recounted in extremely dull detail. "And then I went to the shop for bread, but they didn't have wheat-free! So I had to have baked potato for lunch! It was very distressing!" etc.

I could tell my dad anything. Mom, not so much. There's a lot of omission and some flat out lying.

ETA: I could tell my dad anything, but that's as much because he doesn't so much care what we do. My mom was trickier, but we worked out some codes that made things smoother. Like, if she suggested or told me to do something and I said something to the effect of "yeah, that's an idea" or "sure, maybe I'll do that" she knew it was a dead issue, never gonna happen, but we didn't have to have the actual "no, I won't do that" conversation.

My mom says "I think that you should do X" and I say "okay" that's acknowledging that she said it, not that I'm going to do it. Sometimes she follows up with "so, are you going to do X" and I say "I'll think about it".

My mom has a hard time when people don't follow her advice. Or when she wants advice and it doesn't comport with what she thinks. She ask me what I think and I'll respond with "X". If she doesn't agree, she says "well, don't you think . . ." and I have to say "if I did, I would have said Y". I tell her all of the time "you wanted to know what I thought and I told you. You can take my advice or not, it's worth what you paid for it".