Member-only story
The Terrible Family at Christmas
Do you also know that your own family is the most difficult to manage? That’s what happened to me again today.
For years, the relationship between me, my own family and my parents has been strained. After their company went bankrupt about 20 years ago, they kept blaming others. Also I, who was taken in 1999 at short notice with the responsibility, was not spared from it.
Since 2002 I am married and have two children. My parents had never shown any real interest in my children after their own financial crash landing. Rather, my wife and I made repeated attempts to maintain the relationship.
The last few years we only ever visited each other during birthdays, Easter and Christmas. If, then I called my parents. From them there were never active attempts to see us more often.
Now the Christmas visit was coming up again. In Germany, since mid-December, there are hard contact restrictions due to COVID19. Even at Christmas, contacts are to be kept to a minimum or avoided altogether.
My wife and I decided to drop by at least briefly in the afternoon on Christmas Day. On the phone, I said we didn’t know yet if we would come alone or with the kids due to the situation.
In the end, our younger son came along. When I arrived with my wife and son, we were looked at askance.
