Boundaries make any relationship, whether familial, platonic, romantic, or professional better. It’s true! When everyone’s on the same page, embraces transparency, and is open to clear communication, there are fewer misunderstandings. And the ones that do occur (some are inevitable) quickly get solved because both people are open to voicing their feelings and looking for compromises.

That being said, it’s often hard to set and enforce boundaries with your relatives because they’re, well, family! If you don’t have experience doing this, you might end up feeling slightly guilty saying ‘no’ or calling out bad behavior.

Licensed marriage and family therapist Laurie Carmichael told Time magazine that you need to articulate your boundaries to others, once you’ve figured them out for yourself. You can try to set a clear chain of consequences.

For instance, you could tell your parents that if they comment on your clothes again that you’ll excuse yourself from the dinner table. Similarly, you can make it crystal clear that if your parents make negative comments about your partner, both of you won’t be coming over for dinner again.

Meanwhile, the Taylor Counseling Group urges people to put their personal needs first. Especially ahead of difficult family members. “People who deal with difficult family members frequently find that they’re ignoring their personal needs in favor of their family’s.

Whether you have to eat or sleep or just need some time to yourself, you must put those necessities first before addressing the needs of others. Remember, you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of other people.”

The ‘Me IRL’ online community has grown absolutely massive over the years. Currently, they have around 7.6 million members. Many of them are active content creators who reshare hilarious images they find online. Some of them even take the time to craft their own original memes, too!

The true sign that you’ve got a successful meme on your hands is that it goes viral. The more relatable the topic and idea are, the more they resonate with your target audience. That relatability makes folks want to share it with their family, friends, colleagues, and followers.

However, there’s a strong element of luck involved in meme-making. To put it simply, you can’t ever be sure that your meme will entertain others as much as you expect. So, it’s best not to worry about views, clicks, likes, and comments. Instead, focus on two things: consistency and quality.

In other words, post your internet memes consistently. Stick to your schedule, whatever it is, no matter what.

At the same time, polish up your memes so they stand out from the crowd. Try to use higher-quality images. Meanwhile, make sure that your captions are short, punchy, witty, and written in a readable font. You don’t want to lose your audience, which likely has a short attention span, because your meme takes too much effort to ‘get.’

According to the moderators running ‘Me IRL,’ the subreddit came out of ‘semi-lockdown mode’ a couple of months ago. The so-called lockdown lasted around six weeks. There’d been a massive surge in internet bot posts made on the sub, so the mods decided to only allow approved redditors to post memes. However, this led to a drought of content.

Fortunately, the situation has changed for the better. The moderator team now allows everyone to submit posts on r/me_irl. However, each post still needs to get the moderators’ approval before they go live. This is to ensure that the users behind the posts are actual human beings, not bots. If you want to be an approved member of the community, feel free to reach out to the moderators via the modmail function (in the sidebar of the sub).

The moderators ask the members of their community to keep a few key rules in mind. For example, this isn’t the place to post edgy memes. There are other subreddits for this. Meanwhile, the content on r/me_irl has to be safe for work and suitable for most internet users.

What’s more, every member is expected to treat everyone else with respect. The community is expected to avoid posting generic memes and instead share images that are “a selfie of your soul.”

Which of these memes did you enjoy the most and why? Were there any that really resonated with you on a deeper level? Did you send any of the wittier ones to your relatives, dear Pandas? How do you deal with any disagreements or drama at home?

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Drop by the comment section if you have a second!