I want to move far away from Texas! Not because I do not like the state because it is great; a little hot right now but I still like it. I want to move because the farther we move from the in-laws the easier my life will be. I know that sounds mean but at least if we lived far away I would have an answer to tell the kids why they never see my husband’s family other than on holidays.
The kids are starting to not expect to see the grandparents on that side or the Aunts, Uncles and Cousin on that side of the family and it is very sad for me. I always had a close relationship with my Dad’s family while I was growing up and I have always been the Auntie for my sister’s kids I cannot imagine not being close to them. I really wanted that for my kids they had already been through a lot while they were with their tummy mommy or foster family.
This lack of family relationships is hard for the kids and for my husband too. We do try to go to things but honestly if there is a family gathering they check with the siblings with no kids before they call us the family with three kids. With three kids you just can’t drop everything and run to whatever outing they have planned. With three kids you have other things planned and when you get a last minute invitation you just can’t do everything. This should be ok, most families would understand.
Here is an example just one of many… Last year for my Mother in laws birthday our kids were going to a weekend getaway camp so hubby and I had plans to have a date night. Everyone knew the kids had camp planned for months but we still get grief today because we let the kids go to camp and we went on with our date nights instead of going to the birthday dinner. Were we really expected to cancel our reservations and not let the kids go to camp. YES we were. This year hubby had a colonoscopy on her birthday dinner and we got grief for not going to that one either.