Family Gathering Bickering again!  

Christmas is a very stressful time for everyone under the best of conditions. It is also a time when mothers and fathers want to make their own tradition with their own children - not necessarily with cousins and aunts and uncles and everybody else. You want to wake up in your own bed with your own tree and see YOUR kids open their presents. Later you can go to Grandma's house for dinner or whatever. It's OK if Grandma is visiting at your house on Christmas morning. Am I making sense? 10 families trying to share Christmas under one roof sounds like utter chaos. It is a wonder that any of you are sane.

Can you convince Mom that she has done this long enough and it is time for her to rest? That she could rotate visits among her children and plan family gatherings at less stressful times. This might give her new life.

My Mom has four children and most of the time we get along half way decent but come holidays it seems like fights break out more easily...perhaps b/c of the holiday stress. Anyways, my Mom has started working it out like this: I have two brothers that still live at home, they have dinner with my Mom and stepdad. My older brother and I stop by later for dessert. Mom gets to see everyone and we're not all there at the same time.

~~AT PEACE WITHIN~~

**STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS**

WE have the very same thing going on in our family too. We do not all get together anymore because it just does not work out. Our family is split apart and some live in different ways than the rest of us do and some of us work alot and it is hard to gret together anyway. There is always some kind of bickering going on also and I would rather stay out of it.

why don't you go to each one of them and ask them if they our blind.surly they can see your mom is sick and all the fighting doesn't help it just add's to the stress
but i understand how your mother feel's there is nothing better to have all the kids home at once and to watch how everyone has grown all the noise is part of it so just tell the one that don't want to here it put cotton in your ear give your mom her christmas and tell eveyone to grow up and ya'll can fight whe she is gone

I think for most of us adults Christmas is more a sense of stress than a joy. We have to go and spend money we don't really have or we feel guilty if we can't. I think that puts a lot of people on edge at Christmas time and that is very unfortunate.

I think you need to remind your family that your mother may not have that many more Christmas's left and if she wants her family all together for Christmas in her home then that is the least they could do for her. They will be sorry if they don't this one thing for her after she is gone. Tell them to give her the most special Christmas of all and that being having her whole family together at a special time. It actually brings tears to my eyes thinking that she really wants this but that your family will not come together. I would give anything for just one more traditional holiday with my grandparents.