Christmas is a time when families can come together and celebrate togetherness, good food and a shared passion for a nap at five.
Unless, of course, the family you spend the holiday season with are awful.
One frustrated woman has shared how desperate she is to spend Christmas alone rather than endure another year with her boyfriend’s parents.
The 28-year-old told users on anonymous forum Reddit she couldn’t afford to travel home so a family Christmas would only be possible with her partner of two years’ parents.
“They live just a few hours away from us, so the trip was inexpensive and short,” she wrote.
“The thing is, I can’t stand his parents. I’m Asian, and he is white, and his parents are clearly uncomfortable with my different background.”
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The woman went on to share what happened at his family’s Christmas last year.
“While last year the comments were subtle, about how I must eat ‘weird’ foods. Asking my boyfriend what weird or disgusting things I must force him to eat,” she said.
“Asking if I eat things like potatoes or if I’m okay with onions – treating me like a literal foreigner even though I was born and raised in America.”
Food has continued to be a kind of cultural war zone between the two families.
“They are meat and potatoes kind of folks, which is fine, but when I requested a salad last year for Christmas I was met with confrontation,” she explained.
“His mother then made a warm spinach salad — which was basically covered in bacon grease to appease my boyfriend’s father, and then they insisted that I eat all of it because I was the one that asked for it.”