Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 20:46     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Oh how l hated going to my ex’s families beach house.

They were a once wealthy family that was coming down a bit in the world. Most of them didn’t know how to cook or clean, or pretended not to know how, but they no longer had full time staff at the beach house. They would literally go hungry waiting for someone to bring food - like l once saw a group of 5 or 6 40 somethings all expect that someone else was getting dinner and then finally eating dry crackers, not even cheese. I had ordered pizza but just enough to feed my own family and the kids. I wasn’t ok letting the kids go hungry. It was so bizarre.

This would be such a good sitcom storyline.


I kind of feel like l could write a book about my ex’s family. It would include mistresses, cocaine, prison, feuding families, dropping bags of cash out of airplanes, disputed inheritance (of course)
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 20:38     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Anonymous wrote:Okay, folks-I’m going to be on the frontlines tomorrow. An increasingly “gracious” series of emails re: dinners has been exchanged AND two of the teens (our family and another) are newly vegetarian, one adult newly gluten free and another “minimizing nightshades.” Wish me luck!


Good luck! The GF folks are the worst.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 20:36     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Omg. Minimizing nightshades. That takes the cake.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 20:36     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You forgot the one adult sibling who doesn’t watch their own kids and how another adult is suddenly in charge of several other children who are never well behaved.

I was this victim on two beach vacations. Folks me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. So there was never a third time. I never vacation with my sister ever again.


I think you and I have the same sister!


+1.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 20:36     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Anonymous wrote:Oh how l hated going to my ex’s families beach house.

They were a once wealthy family that was coming down a bit in the world. Most of them didn’t know how to cook or clean, or pretended not to know how, but they no longer had full time staff at the beach house. They would literally go hungry waiting for someone to bring food - like l once saw a group of 5 or 6 40 somethings all expect that someone else was getting dinner and then finally eating dry crackers, not even cheese. I had ordered pizza but just enough to feed my own family and the kids. I wasn’t ok letting the kids go hungry. It was so bizarre.

This would be such a good sitcom storyline.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 20:34     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Oh how l hated going to my ex’s families beach house.

They were a once wealthy family that was coming down a bit in the world. Most of them didn’t know how to cook or clean, or pretended not to know how, but they no longer had full time staff at the beach house. They would literally go hungry waiting for someone to bring food - like l once saw a group of 5 or 6 40 somethings all expect that someone else was getting dinner and then finally eating dry crackers, not even cheese. I had ordered pizza but just enough to feed my own family and the kids. I wasn’t ok letting the kids go hungry. It was so bizarre.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 20:32     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Okay, folks-I’m going to be on the frontlines tomorrow. An increasingly “gracious” series of emails re: dinners has been exchanged AND two of the teens (our family and another) are newly vegetarian, one adult newly gluten free and another “minimizing nightshades.” Wish me luck!
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 20:04     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Anonymous wrote:"8. Consent to all dinner plans. But as game-time approaches, start to cook something else entirely. Take up a lot of burners; always somehow be in the way of the assigned chef. Claim the menu shift is due to dietary restrictions, but really you just want something else, and, like, it’s YOUR vacation, too, right? At least once, “remind” someone who’s already made you dinner that you have plans to eat out. Also, let the same two people do the dishes after every meal. If you’re one of them, sigh audibly. But say nothing (yet)."

I don't care that you're busy trying to get a meal for 18 people on the table, I'll just be taking over the oven because Larla needs her chicken nuggets NOW!!


Omg that was my SIL every Thanksgiving!
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 19:24     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:They need to add “elderly relative who insists on cooking meals for everyone but has questionable food safety practices”. That always makes thing fun.


We have this relative (marinates raw meat loosely covered in the fridge, balancing precariously on top of produce) and she also vastly underestimates how much food to make so at least it gives us an excuse to head out for pizza!


My parents always make too little food. They’ll be like “oh we were just going to have a salad and some bread and cheese for dinner.” Then they act like we’re gluttons because that isn’t enough food for us.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 09:53     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
"8. Consent to all dinner plans. But as game-time approaches, start to cook something else entirely. Take up a lot of burners; always somehow be in the way of the assigned chef. Claim the menu shift is due to dietary restrictions, but really you just want something else, and, like, it’s YOUR vacation, too, right? At least once, “remind” someone who’s already made you dinner that you have plans to eat out. Also, let the same two people do the dishes after every meal. If you’re one of them, sigh audibly. But say nothing (yet)."

I don't care that you're busy trying to get a meal for 18 people on the table, I'll just be taking over the oven because Larla needs her chicken nuggets NOW!!
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2023 09:29     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This brought back a look of rage one brother had when another one brought a sheet tray size shrimp
Cocktail from
Costco into our rented family beach home. Last trip for everyone.


Hahahaha-why?


He thought we bought too much food at Costco, per this rule: 5. Bring a ridiculous amount of food. Each family should bring enough food to feed eighteen families for four months—except the one family who brings enough to feed one family for one week. Unreasonably label the reasonable family “stingy.”

There were many emails leading up to this trip with my mother, three brothers, everyone's spouses and kids that indicated we should not do this trip. Shrimpgate was only the start. Another highlight was when he announced around the campfire that he doesn't think women should have jobs.

Anonymous
Post 08/01/2023 20:39     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
I would include “act dismayed when the dinner prepared on another family’s night doesn’t include your idiosyncratic preference-‘so no jello course?’ or-‘oh, was the piggly wiggly out of canned fruit cocktail/Hawaiian punch/Melba toast?’”
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2023 18:49     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Just back from a week with the in-laws and: yep. Also, won’t be doing that again!
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2023 18:46     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:They need to add “elderly relative who insists on cooking meals for everyone but has questionable food safety practices”. That always makes thing fun.


We have this relative (marinates raw meat loosely covered in the fridge, balancing precariously on top of produce) and she also vastly underestimates how much food to make so at least it gives us an excuse to head out for pizza!


YES. A pound of beef for 8 adults 😑
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2023 18:42     Subject: Every DCUM beach vacation w/family
My sister insisted her young daughter get her own room instead of sharing with her or her other daughter leaving my teenage son (the only boy in a house of 7 females) on the main couch. Those with teenage boys understand the need for privacy in the morning and she could not understand this.