Nov 18th, 2010 by
Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Families are planning to gather around the table to strengthen their connections to one another and maintain traditions. There is a good side to this holiday, and a not so good one. Let’s start with the happy side.
This is the only holiday that everybody in this country celebrates, regardless of ethnic backgrounds, religious affiliations or political ideologies. Families spread around the country and abroad get be back together, with great anticipation and excitement. Relatives who have not seen each other in months finally can spend time together and catch up with whatever is going on in their lives. Everybody seems to be happy to be in each other’s lives, at least for a few days. Television shows and commercials reinforce this idyllic image. Thanksgiving is also the official starting of the holiday season, which creates more expectations and anticipations. What is there not to like about all this?
Then there is a not so good side to Thanksgiving. Airports and roads are crowded. Flights are delayed. Hotels are full. Children are tired and whining. Couples may have to juggle which part of the family they should spend the holiday with. Some of them will eat two dinners, running from one relative’s house to another. Others will argue and disagree on who should have its turn this year to host the dinner.
After the initial happiness of seeing one another, old family dynamics may not take long to get unconsciously reinstated. Parents may revert back to treating their adult children as though they were still ten years old, despite the fact that they haven’t lived together for years. Siblings may regress to old rivalries, teasing and being insensitive with each other, as they used to do when much younger. Everybody will definitively eat too much and worry about having to lose those few extra pounds
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