The aunts and uncles from Hong Kong will be arriving on Monday. My brother has already sent me a schedule for the next two weeks, and it looks quite a lot like a tour schedule. We're at the the morning market so it must be Sunday - that kind of thing.
I suggested that, since they are here to see mum, not the country, we should give them heaps of time for lounging around. Perhaps let them have their mornings and only take them out some afternoons and evenings. They're seventy-somethings after all, and some of them aren't terribly mobile.
I'm planning on fighting familial pressure to spend all my non-working (and some of what should be my working-) time being a gracious hostess, by pointing out that:
(i) I have no paid leave left this year, and
(ii) I still have to study (including an assignment - already - due right in the middle of their second week in town.
There's no point in saying I want time to myself, since that isn't a particularly valid option in my family.
2 comments:
your suggestion sounds much more reasonable - one of my relatives is like your brother i think, always wanting to "cleanly" schedule and organize family visits, worried (i guess?) that they will be bored otherwise if there arent activities going on. but, really, sightseeing is one thing, visiting family is just a different thing. its great if they want to take a morning to go off and see the sights, but lounging around and having opportunities to talk sounds most important.
And the confusing things is that three nights ago he told me not to let it disrupt my life (i.e. still go to the gym etc), but next he tells me that meeting them for dinner 3-4 nights per week isn't enough. I don't know how his partner copes with him, really I don't.
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