Play Dysfunctional Family Bingo to survive the holidays
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Nagging in-law, drunken aunt, whining niece. Best Game Plan for Gatherings: Find Allies, Structure Time, Get in the Mindset. Surviving a family holiday gatherings this year can be easier if a person does some prep work. One psychologist's coping approach: Dysfunctional Family Bingo. WSJ's Elizabeth Bernstein and psychologist Amy Johnson discuss on Lunch Break.
Sick and tired of all those holiday images filled with elegantly dressed people smiling lovingly at their attractive family members by the roaring fireplace?
You aren't alone.
A man in California emailed recently to tell me how after Christmas dinner last year, his brother drunkenly declared his love for his sister-in-law, the man's own wife. Another man in Georgia told me how his father threatened to call the police to his holiday family gathering several years ago.
Nathan Willi, a 24-year-old electronics salesman in Peoria, Ill., is bracing for family fights about football this year. Fourteen of his family members graduated from Notre Dame. Mr. Willi went to Michigan. "I will stay at the Christmas dinner for as long as I can tolerate the extended family's arrogance," he says. (It may be an early night for Mr. Willi this year.) ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324478304578171222305743646.html
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