Who doesn’t love a good family gathering? Spending time with family and close friends should be a relaxing, fun, and fulfilling time. However, when families gather, drama is bound to ensue. These folks share the things that made their jaws drop during a family gathering. All content has been edited for clarity.
Table of contents
1. The Baffling Birthday Celebration
“My ex-mother-in-laws birthday was the day before mine. A message was relayed to my then-husband about how we would do a ‘combined’ birthday celebration for the both of us. None of my family lived in the same state as me at this point, and I wasn’t huge on birthdays anyway, but I invited one of my close friends from work.
We all met at a Hibachi restaurant and there was a table for about 20 people. All of my husband’s siblings, their kids, and their kid’s boyfriends and girlfriends were there. My MIL was at the head of the table, and we were in the far corner of the table on the other end. I thought it was strange but didn’t let it bother me. I started to pick up on some tension from my in-laws, but nothing was said to me or my husband.
When the happy birthday song was sung and the cake was brought out, it only included my MIL. There was no mention of me. I think it might have bothered me a little at this point, as I was confused why it was supposed to be a ‘combined’ ‘birthday but I was left out. My friend thought the whole thing was odd, but we all just talked and enjoyed our food in our corner of the table.
The jaw drop didn’t happen until the next day when my father-in-law called and said how offended they were about how I brought someone they didn’t know to the dinner. My FIL and MIL said we wouldn’t be doing a combined birthday again after my ‘wrong’ behavior.
We never did it again and I was completely fine with it.”
2. “I Was Taken Aback By His Appearance”
“My oldest son who is now almost 40 was a huge punk rocker. This was before it was mainstream. He played guitar in different bands, wore his hair in huge liberty spikes, combat boots with tattoos and piercings everywhere, the whole nine yards.
He hung with pretty rough-looking characters which sometimes made me a little nervous. When I would comment, he would always remind me about how I taught him never to judge a person on the outside.
One Thanksgiving, he asked if he could bring a friend of his over to eat with us because he had no family and my son didn’t want him to be alone. I told him about how he was more than welcome to come.
Thanksgiving Day came and as usual, I was rushing around getting all the food ready and on the table. My sisters were setting the tables when I suddenly remembered my son was bringing his friend. We were about done and ready to eat when I heard a commotion in the front room. I heard my son introducing his friend to everyone so I went out to meet him.
The friend my son had brought with him was introduced to me as ‘Mouse.’ Mouse had long dark hair, muscular arms covered in tattoos, and a gang symbol tattoo right between his eyes. To say I was taken aback by his appearance would have been an understatement. I nearly fainted!
It took a second to get myself together, but I told him it was nice to meet him and we were glad he could come. My son smiled at me, pat Mouse on the back, and found him a place to sit.
He was a little shy at first, but my loudmouth family helped him feel at home.
Later the same night, my son called and told me Mouse had said he had never had such a great Thanksgiving. My son then explained how Mouse had grown up on the streets and had fallen with the wrong group of people. By the time my son had met him, Mouse realized he wasn’t into the gang lifestyle, but was just a kid who didn’t have anyone and just wanted to belong.
He came to our home on several more occasions, and we always enjoyed having him. He was a book of a different color.
When I think about Mouse, it always reminds me about how people can always change if they want to.”
3. The Under Wraps Wedding Day
“I was one of the few whose jaw didn’t drop because I knew all about it.
I had a cookout for my extended family since they were all in town for another event. We invited my sister’s fiance and his family so that we could get acquainted.
Everyone was having a great time, eating, drinking, and laughing. Quietly my sister and her fiance slipped back into my bedroom.
I asked everyone to go downstairs so I could stand on the balcony above, and take a panoramic group photo.
Everyone trouped downstairs and posed looking up at the balcony for me to take the photo.
Instead, a violinist friend at the party stepped out onto the balcony and started to play the wedding march.
A Justice of the Peace, who we had sneaked into the house, stepped out in his black robe and greeted my sister and her fiance, now dressed in their wedding finery.
I got a perfect group shot. I have never seen more mouths open in surprise in one photo.”
4. “Our Jaws Dropped Wide”
“We were having Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, grandparents, and my then-boyfriend. My grandmother was all of 4′10″, tiny, and was generally quite sweet and innocent.
We were all having fun, and the time came for pie. My dad was serving the pie and made some inappropriate joke about whipped cream.
My brother and I both said, ‘Da-ad!, because honestly, who wanted to picture their parents doing inappropriate things with whipped cream?
Out popped my grandmother’s tiny voice, ‘Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!’
‘Grandma!’ we all yelled.
Needless to say, my brother and I were speechless, jaws dropped wide.
She continued to discuss it, ‘It’s not like we do it anymore, but it can be fun!’
Grandma, please stop talking! I thought you liked my boyfriend?
It all worked out in the end, I married my boyfriend, and we just had our 15th wedding anniversary. The whipped cream story was one of our favorites to tell to folks who didn’t understand my crazy family.”
5. Dinner Table Drama
“One year at Easter, my uncle asked, ‘What is your husband doing? Do you think he is going to come back for you?’
Not only were we divorced at the time, but I was the one who had left him in the first place.
On the same occasion, surrounded by pregnant women, one of my cousins asked, ‘Why haven’t you had more kids? I guess you never wanted any.’
Now, unlike my uncle, who seemed to be showing early signs of dementia, my cousin was just being thoughtless. Everybody at the table was just looking at me expectantly, as though this was the way to reestablish some kind of family connection after having not seen or spoken to me in years. Nobody jumped in to change the subject. Nobody said anything helpful. Nobody had the social grace to even try to help me out of this uncomfortable situation.
‘Life doesn’t always work out like you thought,’ was all I said.
‘Well, not everybody likes kids,’ she went on, as though it was obvious I was one of those people.
A heavy, awkward silence fell over the room. I didn’t say anything to help them out, to make it easier or less awkward. Sometimes, when people were rude, it was best to not rescue them.”
