{"id":2746,"date":"2020-12-03T15:44:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T15:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/?p=2746"},"modified":"2020-12-03T15:44:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T15:44:54","slug":"how-to-tell-your-family-youre-not-coming-home-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/?p=2746","title":{"rendered":"How to Tell Your Family You’re Not Coming Home for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

This holiday season will look very different for millions of Americans who have decided to forego traveling home this year due to the pandemic. While some families may be understanding, some may not be as happy with your decision. If you\u2019ve decided not to go home for the holidays, here\u2019s how to break it to your family without burning bridges.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Give Yourself Permission First<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before telling your family, give yourself permission first. Remind yourself why you made the important decision to stay home as opposed to putting yourself and your loved ones at risk. It might help to make a list of your reasons or thought process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Let Your Family Know as Soon as Your Decision is Made<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is simple common courtesy but don\u2019t wait until Christmas Eve to tell them you won\u2019t be coming home. It might be a difficult conversation, but the sooner they know the sooner they\u2019ll be able to prepare their own plans or set up virtual plans with you!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Allow Them to Be Upset, But Set Clear Boundaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the holidays are a big deal in your family, not going might be a shock and could potentially upset some family members. Set clear boundaries and explain why you will not be joining them, but also remind them you\u2019re not coming home because you don\u2019t <\/span>want<\/span><\/i> to spend the holidays with them. Remind them the reason you\u2019re not going to be there is for <\/span>their<\/span><\/i> health and safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you need additional help setting boundaries, check out <\/span>this blog post<\/span><\/a> that touches on the topic of saying \u2018no\u2019. You can also check out <\/span>this post<\/span><\/a> all about setting boundaries during the holidays.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Offer Alternatives<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be open to compromising or offering different ways you can celebrate together. Maybe you do a virtual holiday celebration or have Christmas dinner all together over a Zoom call. Figure out what could potentially work best with you, your family and your situation and find creative ways to keep any family traditions alive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Always remember that boundaries are a key component in healthy relationships whether that\u2019s friends, family or a significant other. This holiday season is going to be strange and difficult but we should remind ourselves this won\u2019t last forever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This holiday season will look very different for millions of Americans who have decided to forego traveling home this year due to the pandemic. While some families may be understanding, some may not be as happy with your decision. If you\u2019ve decided not to go home for the holidays, here\u2019s how to break it to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[36,64,65,238],"class_list":["post-2746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationships","category-wellness","tag-boundaries","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-and-christmas","tag-setting-boundaries-during-the-holidays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillpointcounselingandwellness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}