I said after last year that was it, I wouldn't attend the boxing day get together of my extended family again. But now the guilt tripping's begun, and I knew this would happen. I feel bad and I don't know if i;m making the right decision.
My extended family are all part of a subsect of christianity i doubt any of you will have heard of. But it's pretty extreme, thing no marriage outside the religion, against homosexuality, against being "part of the world" and then recently my childhood "meeting" as it's called split up because a couple of divorcees wanted to join, and half said they wouldn't break bread with divorced people.
So that's the context. I always enjoyed the get together as a child. Often it was the only time of the yr i saw my extended family, but then again as a child i was indoctrinated brought up within the religion so that didn't bother me. Now I'm an adult with my own children it's a different story.
Last year was hell. Some relatives were downright rude, pushed religion onto my children, i was given no choice but to participate in their religious activities and then sat though comments which made me so seething angry i left without saying goodbye. It makes me deeply uncomfortable because of my experiences. Last yr as well I was going through a police report of a historic sexual abuse, but because the offender was part of the religion, i was told by family there was no need to tell police, they could sit me and him in a room and talk about it (wtf?) and given no support.
My aunt who i'm close to was fine about it, until this morning i've recieved numerous text messages. Saying about tolerance and love, jesus etc. Told that i should do it for my children because she doesn't like it but she does it for them and my deceased mum etc.
So I'm nbu right? sure my children are young enough for religious things to go over my head but is it really worth enduring that?