Under One Roof

When you say family, what does it mean? Does it mean immediately family only? Does it include the extended family? Does it include a few very close family friends?

Personally, family for me includes my immediate family and only close relatives. By relatives I mean my father’s side of the family and not all of them. Some aunts and uncles and cousins whom I like.

From the time my mom passed away, it has become a tradition for us to schedule outings every year. Summer or sometime in December near the holidays. And during these outings, we would often tell each other that it’s family only. No girlfriends or boyfriends or friends included. The reason behind this is that, the outing is a time for us to bond as a family. If there are distractions in the form of other people they need to entertain, then the time for us to bond would be halved.

During our last outing, my cousin brought along six of his friends with him. That alone violates our rules for family outings. He knows that he can go out with his friends all he wants but then do not bring them during a family outing. The worse thing was this. We brought along food for the kids because you know how kids are during a swim. After an hour or two in the pool, they’ll get out of the water hungry. Since his friends were unexpected and not really part of the planning, the food intended for the kids were given to his friends. I was really pissed off because of my cousin’s insensitivity. He could have warned us that he’d bring his friends along. His parents could have prepared their own food and brought along more than enough. But no. They didn’t. They stood there serving the teens like its their food their serving.

These are some of the things that I don’t like during family outings. Insensitivity towards others. Selfishness…

Does this happen to your family outings as well?