How do you extricate yourself from a family-oriented friendship? Very long and pathetic story to follow. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Aug 4, 2009 - 28 answers

What foreign film titles are there that involve remarkably realistic characters -and- settings as part of the plot and use a contemporary setting? [more inside]
posted by crapmatic on May 31, 2009 - 37 answers

Looking to purchase some awesome linguistics-related posters. I've searched for hours on the internet and I can't seem to find any family tree posters, IPA posters, or even anything remotely related to linguistics that is interesting and somewhat academic. [more inside]
posted by iamkimiam on May 28, 2009 - 8 answers

I am getting married on May 12th. How do I break the news to my family? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Feb 7, 2009 - 15 answers

Why in (nearly) every sitcom nominally about some kind of "nuclear" family do the children consist of an younger brother and older sister? [more inside]
posted by feelinglistless on Feb 6, 2009 - 23 answers

Literary works that explore traditional and nontraditional (American) families? [more inside]
posted by fugitivefromchaingang on Jan 15, 2009 - 26 answers

Help me help my troubled son. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Jun 9, 2007 - 46 answers

Help me find a NY Times article claiming that the number of kids in cities has increased over the past ten years! [more inside]
posted by soma lkzx on Feb 13, 2007 - 3 answers

I will be leaving in a month for Jaipur, Rajasthan, to study abroad. I'll spend the spring living with an Indian family, studying international development, and doing an internship at an NGO in or near the city. Afterwards, I may travel around India for a while with a friend. Please give me any and all advice you have about traveling and living in India. [more inside]
posted by bookish on Dec 15, 2006 - 8 answers

I believe my dad is gay (but still in the closet); I'm curious about how other families/children handle this situation. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Dec 6, 2005 - 20 answers

My SO and I need gifts for our families. Of course this is really late and we are kinda broke. [+] [more inside]
posted by jmgorman on Dec 19, 2004 - 9 answers

We’ll be interstate with my family for Festivus, and so we thought we’d start a new tradition and hold Thanksgiving with my wife’s family as an almost-end-of-year get-together. (stuffing inside…) [more inside]
posted by obiwanwasabi on Nov 25, 2004 - 4 answers

Several months ago, it was agreed that we would visit my family for Christmas. Now the SO has said he'd like to see his daughter. [MI] [more inside]
posted by Miss Bitchy Pants on Nov 19, 2004 - 9 answers

Let's say you are a 21 year old female, senior in college, with a 23 year old sister who is a grad student. The two of you are quite close but have very different interests. You're into Five-Eight for the moment and she's been into Tim McGraw for about ten years now. You have a steady boyfriend while she spends more time with her friends. Your mom and dad are divorced but that's ok cause they are better apart anyway. Now your mom wants to start her own Christmas tradition that doesn't involve your dad. She wants to take you, your sister, and maybe a couple of friends on a trip every year leaving on Christmas Day or maybe the day after. Her budget is $4000. Any suggestions on how to make everyone at least 90% happy?
posted by oh posey on Sep 6, 2004 - 22 answers

I'm recently engaged and my fiancée and I are stuck between families. Ideally we could see both sets of family for Christmas but geography rules it out.

How do you handle sharing the holidays with a minimum of stress or hurt feelings? Rotating, where you go to one house on one year and the other house the next year? Split each holiday into halves and see both each year? Any ideas?
posted by jmevius on Dec 10, 2003 - 19 answers