Twinkle: Family Dinner Cockblock

Fun Sink is redoing her kitchen this month, so I graciously offered to do one of our beloved Friday night get-togethers at our house. Not that I thought she'd take me up on it,  but we're supposed to be family, so I offered. Tonight Mr. Twinkle and I both got an e-mail from her, making sure we'd be free on the 26th (the night I offered to have them over), to attend a dinner at the Glenview. It'll just be Fun Sink and my FIL, us, and two of Fun Sink's cousins from California. And she is going to take all her supplies and ingredients and cook for everyone in the tiny kitchen of the Glenview, with no help whatsoever.

And here is how that would have gone down in my family, with the loving relationship between my mother and my dad's mother: my grandmother would have said, "I've got these cousins coming in and my kitchen's being remodeled. I don't know what I'm going to do." And my mother (having already offered to host) would have said again, "I'd be happy to host everyone." And my grandmother would have thanked her profusely and offered to bring something and help her set up, and my mother would have accepted her help because she would have known that my grandmother didn't mean anything nefarious by it. And that, I believe, is how families should work.

Anyway, I'm sure y'all are thinking I'm crazy right now because--hello--this Glenview dinner means less (no) work for me. And I'm OK with that part of it. But at the same time I wish Fun Sink would treat me more like a friend and a member of the family. Also, I know what this will be: the same menu of brisket and veggies with no seasoning, and another excuse for Fun Sink to cook a meal at the Glenview and then complain about all her hard work.

Anyway, Mr. Twinkle is more upset than I am that she shunned my gracious offer, so that's something. The sad thing: it doesn't have to be this way. All she would have to do is treat me like a member of the family and stop competing over every little thing. I know that's impossible for her, and that is a shame. It could all be so much better than it is.