If you plan on having kids: Heed this warning!

As soon as you have your first child....move.

Seriously.

Move as far from both your family, and your in-laws as soon as humanly possible. You ask why?
because no matter how rational your family is, no matter how great your in-laws are, as soon as that kid comes into play, things change. Spend more than 15 minutes more a month visiting one set of grand parents, and the others get jealous.

Holidays? Forget it. Become shut-ins and visit no one. If they want to see you, they come visit. Jealousy and irritation becomes the order of the day. We're not even to Thanksgiving yet and I've got one set of parents pissed off at me because we're not having Thanksgiving with them- even though we were there last year and made it abundantly clear that we'd be doing this on a rotational basis.

Either don't have kids, or move.....move far, far away.

Alternatively, have in-laws that live right down the street from your parents.

Or run yourself ragged like we do. We live within an hour of both sets of grandparents, and all four sets of great grandparents. We spend a lot of time on the road during the holidays. If there's a schedule conflict (which happens every Christmas now that one of the families moved their gathering on top of another a few years ago, and refuses to change away from that day/time), we go to the family that called first. We set up another time to go visit the left out grand/great grandparents.

Dazed wrote: Or run yourself ragged like we do.

We did that before the baby was born. Thanksgiving day, Christmas Day, New Years day, Easter....we were on the road for every one of them. I refuse to do that now that the little guy is born. 1st, its annoying. 2nd, a 7 month old's schedule is tenuous at best.....hours on the road are a bad idea.

Reb Cpl wrote: Dazed wrote: Or run yourself ragged like we do.  We did that before the baby was born. Thanksgiving day, Christmas Day, New Years day, Easter....we were on the road for every one of them. I refuse to do that now that the little guy is born. 1st, its annoying. 2nd, a 7 month old's schedule is tenuous at best.....hours on the road are a bad idea.

It's not as bad with a 7 month old as it is with a 2 year old. Just wait until he is too hyped up from the sweets and socialization to take a nap on the way home, so he crashes at 5 pm. There goes bed time...

We're going to try it with two for the first time this year. I have a feeling it'll be exponentially more difficult. Everything else is.

Pro Tip: Celebrate both Canadian and American thanksgiving.

Host?

^^truth....feels more like a mosh pit....without music...

does not work on in laws...^

HA!!!!!!  You have a lot to learn about children!!!  You need benedryl!!!!  tasers don't work on them! Especially cranky 2 year olds...