Reply to Do you serve/eat right away at a house party or holiday?

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "Do you serve/eat right away at a house party or holiday?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP I can commiserate. My family always has food ready, or apps with food pending (nothing very high class - usually BBQ type stuff or lasagna). And, they are often early/late afternoon meals - never 6pm or later. We have elderly family members who have to drive home in daylight.

MIL likes to do sit down 3-course meals. No elderly people to worry about. Apps are out when guests arrive, but she is very bad at planning and dinner is often served late. Luckily, DH, SIL, FIL and I have two approaches:
1) we take over the cooking to make sure it's ready on time
2) we feed the kids an early meal like PB&J or bread and a side that is ready, if it is clear that dinner will not be served on time.

The WORST is the holidays at MIL's best friends' house. Like you, you HAVE to arrive NO LATER THAN 3:30PM or you will be 'late'.  You eat apps and 'hang out' while the hostess cooks, often with help from MIL and her daughter. Dinner is literally 20 dishes and is served no earlier than 7:30pm, AND every time one dish will be 'forgotten' in the oven.

When we just had #1, we sucked it up. When we had #2, I set limits. We arrive at 3:30, then we plan to leave at 5:15 (kids eat at 5:30pm). If one kid is hanging tough, then DH stays with that kid while I leave with the younger kid. I have had to endure 'Oh why are you leaving???' and the slew of questions about why can't I put him to bed at their house, etc., but I smile and say 'sorry' and take off. I'm sorry, but kids under age 5 cannot endure a 2-hour meal from 7:30-9:30pm.

I have also learned to blatantly ask, 'When do you plan to serve the meal?'. For example, a 1pm bbq (smack in the middle of nap time) meant food would be served at 5pm. FIVE PM, four HOURS after guests were expected to arrive. And here I'd been planning to skip #2's nap and just leave at 4pm when he got loopy...good thing I'd asked. We arrived after naptime, stayed until dusk, and went home. It was SO much more fun than it would have been otherwise!!![/quote]
So you only stay for an hour and 45 minutes? 
Wow... we're Greek and my kids have always "endured" 7:30-9:30 dinner during the holidays. Its not like they're asking you to do it everyday.
Seriously, I think this is my SIL posting. If it is, she rolls in, drops her kids on anyone that will have them then proceeds to complain for an hour or two... finishes up the gripe session by loudly elaborating about her kid's "schedule" to anyone that will listen. She never lifts a finger to help the rest of us cook, serve or clean up.  Frankly, we all breathe a collective sigh of relief when she packs up her kid and goes home. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics