Divorced Parents and the Holidays: Aren’t You Glad it’s Over?

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Ah, the holidays. A joyous time for many filled with food, family, and fun; that is until you meet the kid with divorced parents. For me, and many others, the holiday season (while still super great and my favorite time of year) is filled to the brim with decision making. Trying to work out a schedule of when to see who and where you’re going to see them is a nightmare of trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings, and inevitably knowing you’re going to hurt everyone’s. If your parents are anything like mine, they want to spend all the holidays with you and at some point in this season you had to decide which side got which holidays, and then had to do the worst part of the whole ordeal: call and tell your mother you’re not spending Christmas Eve with her. While I did make it up (as much as you can) by spending New Year’s Eve with her, to me this feels like the worst insult, simply a slap in the face; to tell either parent (although maybe not in the exact terms) “I am consciously choosing to leave you alone on the holidays and instead spend it with someone you loathe.” At least when I was in high school it was legally written out in explicit terms, and when they complained I could just shrug and say, “you literally chose this.” Now that I’ve “grown up” (as much as you can call a college student an adult) I must choose, and I personally think the newfound freedom sucks worse than having it written out simply because now instead of being their fault its mine! Tell me about your holiday situations, and tips to getting through them in the comments below, because this is my first year of doing this and I’m without a clue! Thanks for the advice in advance, and I hope to see y’all back here soon!

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