Dealing With Extended Family During The Holiday

Christmas Dinner is coming and with it for a lot of us, comes the cacophony that is aunts and uncles and all sorts of extended family coming to visit for the Holidays.

If you’re like me ( single and unmarried and in that ambiguous age after 21 but before 30) you might very well be delegated the task of entertaining your little cousins. Everyone knows that parents will tell the kids how “cool” you are and send them up to your room so that “you kids” can spend some time together ( and so that they have some time for themselves)

Here are a couple of things you can do that may make that time a tad more enjoyable, even if you’re not a kid person.

Draw or Color

Kids love to be creative and it’ll keep them in one place for a while.

Introduce them to your favorite book

Kids can surprise you. They might become the person who loves to talk about your favorite character with you.

Play a card game with them.

Nothing brings the family together like Uno right?

Teach them your favorite songs.

Children love to mimic, now’s your chance to have someone who will always agree with your music taste.

Just talk to them.

Kids are people, just like you. They enjoy being engaged and being listened to just as you do. They can have opinions and thought-out discussions even as young as nine-year-olds. Talk to them about their day, about how they like the Holiday, about what they think. It would make everything more enjoyable and in the case they do need some Adult help, you’ll be the first one to know.

Remember that while they can drive you up a wall, your little cousins legitimately enjoy spending time with you, and have as much choice in the matter as you do, if not less. Hopefully, these tips can help make the Holidays go more smoothly for everyone involved.