To attend an uncle's bday party just for the food and cake?

[LegoComplex]

Ended up saying I'll go to my uncle's 50yr old party next weekend.. but I'm not a fan of this uncle at all! Bit of backstory with the whole thing really involving cazy religious types and a very unhappy christmas do...after which i said to my aunt i didn't think i could go to a family gathering of that nature again - which she forwarded to my whole family?!

So she was very keen fo me to come along to this, and i guess it'd be good for my extended family to see 3month old DS.. but really on a personal level i'm just in it for the food. Now feeling guilty as you can probably tell!

Nothing to feel guilty about. Hoover up the sausage rolls and avoid the trigger happy aunt!

What percentage of the others attending do you think are going because they adore this uncle? I imagine like you they have various reasons for going. Feeling you should put in appearance, wanting to introduce your baby to the family and yes, scoffing as much cake as possible are all perfectly acceptable reasons for going to a family do.

Deep down everyone finds family gatherings a bit of a trial, very few people like every member of their family, but we feel obliged to go to parties etc. Food is the payment for turning up

Yanbu, fill your boots.

If the Christmas do was really that bad; would a bit of cake and some vol-au-vents really make this one worth the effort?

YNBU BUT I think you're being daft.

Stay away - history tells you it could prove to be a stress filled event - not worth it for a slice of quiche and handful of crisps (that everyone else has fingered with germy hands!!).

Stay away.

This is going to sound too twee ... but I try to invite 'good' into my life, and ignore what does not bring me happiness

So cake = good. But a party filled with stressful arseholes = not good.

You can buy nice food, you can't buy mental health.

^ That's a very basic level. To be honest my gut says you should go for a lot of reasons, especially the opportunity to show off the new baby to as many people as possible all at once. But for god's sake don't do it for food!

floggingmolly oh no. do you think i'm that easily swayed? We're talking full up BBQ and a massive cake! nice responses i thought i'd get flamed.

yeah.. i think this will be a last chance. at christmas the crazy was strong. at least this one there's lots of open space - plus i like my cousins!

See it as a trial run for Christmas etc. If this is a bad one, you truly never go again and invite those cousins you do like round to yours.