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“I Went Too Far”: Parent Cancels Thanksgiving After Family Refuses To Follow Simple Rule
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“I Went Too Far”: Parent Cancels Thanksgiving After Family Refuses To Follow Simple Rule

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As much as we love the holidays and joyful family gatherings, planning them can be incredibly stressful. For this Redditor, the Thanksgiving they were set to host this year started going off the rails well before the big night.

Hoping to protect their child with a medical condition, they asked relatives to follow just one simple rule: don’t come if you’re feeling sick. But when no one took the request seriously, things quickly spiraled into full-blown family drama. Read on for the full story.

For Thanksgiving this year, the host asked their relatives to skip dinner if they were feeling sick

Image credits: drazenphoto/Envato (not the actual photo)

But when no one took the request seriously, it sparked a full-blown family drama

Image credits: graziegranata/Envato (not the actual photo)

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Image credits: Laura_antonela

What families fight about when they fight on Thanksgiving

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Image credits: anontae2522/Envato (not the actual photo)

On paper, Thanksgiving is supposed to be about giving thanks, but for many Americans, it’s often one of the year’s rowdiest gatherings. Alongside the cheerful conversations and hearty turkey feasts, there’s almost an expectation of being pulled into a family disagreement. And for OP, this holiday season seems to be no exception.

In fact, a USA TODAY Blueprint survey from last year found that out of 2,000 adults, only 12 percent reported never having family arguments on Thanksgiving. Over half (51 percent) said the top trigger for conflicts was “family issues.” Coming in close were politics (48 percent) and money (47 percent). Other tricky topics that tend to stir up tension included children and parenting approaches (37 percent) and religion (29 percent).

The survey also revealed that some family members are more likely to start a quarrel than others. Dads ranked first, with 38 percent of respondents saying they were the most likely to kick off a disagreement. Other likely candidates for starting a fuss were grandma (36 percent), grandpa (32 percent), aunt (31 percent), mom (27 percent), and uncle (23 percent).

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How to keep the peace with relatives over the holidays

Image credits: Rawpixel/ Envato (not the actual photo)

If you’d rather skip the holiday squabbles, experts from Business Insider have a few tips. For one, you could give family members a heads-up in advance about which topics to avoid at the table. But if that’s not enough, and if your patience holds, it’s sometimes best to just let certain comments roll off your back.

“You have to understand the importance of the relationship. Is it actually worth winning the argument? Is it even worth hashing out?” says Keisha Saunders-Waldron, a licensed clinical mental health counselor supervisor. “And it could be worth hashing out when we’re talking about things where your value systems and core beliefs start to kick in—but if we know there is no resolution, and it’s not worth ending the relationship over, then we want to agree to disagree.”

If someone keeps pressing you, it’s important to set firm boundaries. “Those boundaries can sound like saying: ‘I’m not willing to continue to be badgered right now. So I have about two more minutes to talk to you before that I’m walking away, and I’m giving you the respect of letting you know that I’m walking away,’” adds Saunders-Waldron.

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Humor can also work wonders to ease the situation, or, as radical as it might sound, you can apologize if you feel you crossed a line. And if things reach a point where nothing seems to help, remember you can always make a polite exit.

“I think grace is a big deal in this whole topic because you don’t want to alienate from your family,” says Risha Grant, international speaker, DEI consultant, and best-selling author. “I would still give everybody a hug on the way out—maybe not the person I’m pissed off at—but grandma, grandpa, I’d say ‘I love all of you so much. It was great up until this time, but I refuse to put myself or my loved ones in this situation. Maybe we’ll come back tomorrow and see you.’”

Many commenters supported the parent, saying the other relatives were being incredibly irresponsible

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A few, though, argued that it wasn’t wise to plan the dinner in the first place

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Oleksandra Kyryliuk

Oleksandra Kyryliuk

Writer, BoredPanda staff

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Kyiv-born, Vilnius-dwelling writer with a suitcase full of curiosity. My Master's in International Communication fuels my love for exploring different stories. Whether I'm putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), you might catch me out and about with my film camera, cycling around, or on a quest for the perfect coffee spot. Occasionally seen trying to find inner peace on the yoga mat.

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Oleksandra Kyryliuk

Oleksandra Kyryliuk

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Kyiv-born, Vilnius-dwelling writer with a suitcase full of curiosity. My Master's in International Communication fuels my love for exploring different stories. Whether I'm putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), you might catch me out and about with my film camera, cycling around, or on a quest for the perfect coffee spot. Occasionally seen trying to find inner peace on the yoga mat.

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Author, BoredPanda staff

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I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

Read less »

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Author, BoredPanda staff

I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

How do you feel about the decision to cancel the Thanksgiving dinner?
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Libstak
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The YTA trolls out in force again. Would it kill them to read properly where she pointed out she hosts thanksgiving every year and the expectation that she would again was ingrained before she made the sensible conditions to protect her child's health? This is family, she was simply assuming they would care enough about the welfare of their niece, nephew, cousin, grandchild etc to just appreciate the heads up to do the right thing. But all they cared about was THEIR thanksgiving. No doubt they are peeved they now have to fork out for their own thanksgiving meal themselves too.

Alex Mosby
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I will forever look at most of my family differently after the pandemic. Non of them were skeptic or anti vaccines, they just had no regard for social distancing and anytime someone got sick, it was some one else's fault.

Libstak
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm sorry that happened. I had a mixed bag. A crazy sister who had to do it so perfectly, nobody else could ever be a better sanitiser or social distancer than her, and on and on she went on about it. A nephew who thought it was all rubbish but let us follow the rules,Es without making a song and dance of it in his presence. Great nieces and their families and me, caring for 2 elderly that was happy to do what it took to keep them safe and had no time for any dramatics, too busy.

Load More Replies...
T.M.P Janssen
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

seriously, if I had a child and the doctor said "keep them away from anyone with flu sympoms" during autumn (like rn) and my family would react like THAT, they can go f**k themselves right away. Your every-year returning dinner is not worth my childs safety, go eat your Thanksgiving at a McDonalds then.

Load More Comments
Libstak
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The YTA trolls out in force again. Would it kill them to read properly where she pointed out she hosts thanksgiving every year and the expectation that she would again was ingrained before she made the sensible conditions to protect her child's health? This is family, she was simply assuming they would care enough about the welfare of their niece, nephew, cousin, grandchild etc to just appreciate the heads up to do the right thing. But all they cared about was THEIR thanksgiving. No doubt they are peeved they now have to fork out for their own thanksgiving meal themselves too.

Alex Mosby
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I will forever look at most of my family differently after the pandemic. Non of them were skeptic or anti vaccines, they just had no regard for social distancing and anytime someone got sick, it was some one else's fault.

Libstak
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm sorry that happened. I had a mixed bag. A crazy sister who had to do it so perfectly, nobody else could ever be a better sanitiser or social distancer than her, and on and on she went on about it. A nephew who thought it was all rubbish but let us follow the rules,Es without making a song and dance of it in his presence. Great nieces and their families and me, caring for 2 elderly that was happy to do what it took to keep them safe and had no time for any dramatics, too busy.

Load More Replies...
T.M.P Janssen
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

seriously, if I had a child and the doctor said "keep them away from anyone with flu sympoms" during autumn (like rn) and my family would react like THAT, they can go f**k themselves right away. Your every-year returning dinner is not worth my childs safety, go eat your Thanksgiving at a McDonalds then.

Load More Comments
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