Family get togethers can be the most treasured and exciting event of the year or the most boring and monotonous obligation. You get to catch up with your cousins and recount all the epic childhood stories, play games like Pictionary or Dumb Charades that get the whole family riled up and engaged, or just sit down and relive memories with your loved ones.

But with all the fun and entertainment comes drama and conflicts amongst members of the family. It’s not possible for everyone in the family to get along, and sometimes family gatherings are prime occasions for outbursts and hostile attitudes.

If you’re meeting your family after a long time, you might find out that you’ve grown apart and have almost nothing in common anymore. This only results in a long, awkward dinner where you make small talk and wait for the night to be over.

Family get togethers can be great, but there are certain drawbacks that might make the experience almost stifling and unbearable.

Here is a list of pros and cons of family get together. Let’s have a look…

Pros:

Reminiscing the Old Times
No one knows about the good and bad times you’ve been through as a child, prepubescent, and an adult the way your siblings, cousins or parents do. They’ve been with you, quite literally, since your birth and have seen you through your ups and downs.

If you’re lucky enough to have cousins you get along with, family gatherings will be an exciting occasion to look forward to. It’s the perfect opportunity to meet all your cousins who might have moved away or are too busy to meet up.

You can sit and talk for hours on end about all the trouble you got in together as children, the epic adventures, the make-belief games, and enjoy the nostalgic feeling of being a child again.

Your lives may be drastically different, but family gatherings bring you all together and give you the opportunity to muse over your shared experience as part of the same family.

A chance to strengthen bonds
Blood is thicker than water for a reason. No matter where you are in life or how dissociated you are from your hometown or family, you can always count on them to have your back.

Family gatherings are the perfect opportunity to reconnect will all your aunts and uncles and strengthen your familial bonds. Your relationship with your family is more than just an emotional investment; they’ll also be there for you if you’re having a financial crisis or are in need of any kind of help.

It’s best to form an intimate relationship with your family members because they’ll always be reliable in times of need.

Entertainment on a budget
Family get togethers are usually budget-friendly and low expense holidays. It’s a great opportunity to forget about your worries and stress and enjoy the moment with your relatives.

You’ll also have great food – a large variety to accommodate all the families that will be gathering after a long time – so you can enjoy good company with good food.

You will also get to chill and relax. Family get togethers often include board games, music, and general chatter so you won’t be spending excessively on trying to have a good time. In fact, you can make it more fun by indulging in entertaining games or giving dares, such as forcing your uncle to recite a romantic poem.

Cons:

Feeling disconnected
Family gatherings are the rare occasion when members from across the country, or even globe, get together to catch up. You may feel alienated and disconnected with the members of your family once you meet them because of all the years and different experiences that have shaped you and your family members into vastly different individuals.

You may not share the same worldview, same interest and likes, and this can be a wedge in your attempt to bond with your cousins or other members. You don’t know how much you can share with them about your current life for fear of being judged.

This can make you uncomfortable and you’d be looking for excuses to skip the ordeal.

The drama

It doesn’t matter how hard you try to avoid it, there will always be some form of drama at a family event. While some of us may enjoy such drama (guilty pleasure), most like to stay away from it.

Fulfilling an obligation

If you don’t get along with your family at all and are only hoping you never have to meet them again, then family get togethers can be a personified nightmare.

Your parents might emotionally blackmail or force you to attend the occasion, so you end up partaking only to fulfill an obligation. Attending for the sake of making your parents happy, or to stop them from nagging you all the time, is an added burden to your already hectic life.

You spend the entire time trying to avoid everyone and their unnecessary comments on your life, hoping that it would end quickly. You promise yourself you’ll never go through that again but the history always repeats itself.

Family get togethers are great in small doses. Even if you get along with your family, they will mostly likely get on your nerves at some point in time. But at the end of the day, they’re your window to your past. It’s important to mingle with them and build a strong foundation.