Hi, Dr. Laura here. Happy to join you at our YouTube channel, where I get to answer your questions like a holiday question from Dave:
"Every other year for the holiday season we take turns with my daughter-in-law's family. This Christmas, it's our turn to have our son, our daughter-in-law and their one year old little boy. Our daughter-in-law has mentioned to us that she would like to leave at 10 am on Christmas morning, so they can drive several hours to see her relatives. She has expressed that we all need to compromise and work together on the holidays. We do get along with her, but I believe that she is having trouble not being with her family, especially now that she has a child. Do you think it's reasonable or fair for them to leave so early on our holiday? What should I say to her?"
You know, really make a big fuss about Christmas Eve. Get up early and have a great Christmas breakfast, and everybody open gifts and let them go to the other in-laws house. Let me tell you how I'm going to handle this when I'm fortunate enough that my son is married and they have kids and all of that. I told him I would travel anywhere to have a holiday season with everybody, all together, both in-laws. I don't understand this having to go to one place, then the other place, one place, the other place. (Unless of course they're 3000 miles away. That's another story.) But this is driving distance. I would say, "You know what? I'll drive you there. We'll all have Christmas lunch at your folks' house." It's family! Stop being his, hers, mine, theirs, ours. Stop it.
I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger, now have a good Christmas holiday and remember: I'll crawl through broken glass to go wherever my son and daughter-in-law are going to be and you could at least think of driving. Take care. Merry Christmas.
