Your house, your rules, so spell them out from now on and give your son-in-law a chance to surprise you.
Category: family
#1336: “Shutting down pressure to see transphobic and homophobic family.”
Content note/reminder that describing bigotry accurately sometimes includes examples. Followed by the usual reminders that boundaries are more about deciding what you will do than about what you can convince other people to do.
Vaccines: Envy & Etiquette
What to do when everyone you know is getting vaccinated, except for you? What about when you're the relatively fortunate person? Also, what about relatives who refuse to be immunized? Here are some thoughts about that.
#1316: “I finally have a friend and my wife is jealous.”
Feelings (jealousy, discomfort, biphobia) clean-up in Aisle 7.
#1315: How do I tell acquaintances about a death in the family without sounding dramatic?
When you want to share an extremely mood-ruining thing (death of a parent) without ruining the mood: Be brief and direct, and let other people be nice to you for a minute.
#1310: Giving our future children my (the hetero wife’s) last name.
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Great! Then why not pick mine?
#1304: “Fox News stole my mom and replaced her with a ranting lady who won’t let me say or do anything without it setting her off. How do I get along with her until I can leave for college?”
On calling bluffs, escape velocity, and the futile, necessary, but probably still futile, work of reclaiming some of our relatives from history's flaming dumpster. Content note: Sometimes honestly talking about authoritarian stuff and white supremacy means describing it, so there are examples of actual racist and xenophobic statements from relatives herein.
#1302: Guest Post: “When your hosts are doing you a favor but their housekeeping habits are making you sad and ill.”
Hello, this week we have a guest post from Rachel Hoffman of Unf*ck Your Habitat blog and book fame about the tricky balance of maintaining your own sanity (and sanitation) in a house where you are a guest.
Links: The Holidays and What To Do About Them
Weird holidays, weird year.
#1293: “I’m worried my family’s anger about me being a trans man will overshadow my sister’s wedding.”
Licensed therapist Rae McDaniel reminds a reader that discomfort is not harm, and trans people aren't messing up their family events by existing at them.
