La Familia

My family of origin is irritating the shit out of me.

Without going into details, why must people plan events without first confirming the guest(s) of honor will even be able to attend? And then reschedule at the last minute when they discover their error (in this case, 2 days prior)? Why is it so that only one family member out of 6 (plus respective spouses) works weekends, yet everything has to be planned around that one family member's schedule?

And whatever happened to grandparents who wanted to spend time with their grandchildren and didn't mind driving across town (or to a neighboring town) to do so? I suppose it was different when I was a kid--both sets of my grandparents were mostly retired by the time I was old enough to hang out with them. Grandparents today still have full-time jobs. And some of them are intent on living out the "roarin' twenties" they missed the first time because they were...having kids. Still, asking them to find the time to spend one afternoon out of an entire month or more of afternoons with their grandchildren...doesn't seem like such a tall order to me. Though it apparently does to some people. I appreciate grandparents with jobs are very generous at birthdays and holidays, but seriously--I'd rather my kids got one gift from them per year and were able to spend more time with them instead.

I suppose I'm just tired of my kids getting the short end for no reason other than they're not convenient. Really? Maybe I should pack up the troops and move to Florida (like I've been threatening for years) so they can see just how inconvenient we can be.