Tonight, we trekked out to Long Island to celebrate Passover at my sister-in-law's house. Now, without getting into all of the dirty details regarding families and their difficulties in general, I would just like to say that it's true - you don't marry a person, you marry their entire family, for better or for worse.
If you are single, and you don't appreciate comments or remarks made by a member of your significant other's family, you can choose to stay away from those people - avoid outings that they will be attending, not make an effort to call/stop by, etc. However, as soon as you make a lifetime commitment, everything changes. Saying "Your [fill-in-the-blank] is extremely rude and mean to me, and it hurts my feelings, so I will not be attending your family functions in the future" doesn't cut it anymore.
So, you have a choice. You can either (A) suck it up, take the high road, pretend that the hurtful comments that were made about you don't really matter - in other words, make life easy for your significant other (even though taking this can be painful for a hot-blooded, grudge-holding Italian like someone I know) ... or (B) you can move far, far away. There are pros and cons to each, but you do what you must to support your significant other in his decision regarding his family.
Now, I will admit that maybe I don't understand the nuances of family dysfunction. I don't think that anyone ever boasts a perfect childhood, but Ari makes constant mention of the fact that I grew up in the picture-perfect, Brady Bunch household. Am I missing something? If I am being naive, please tell me. Is a happy existence, complete with extended family, even possible?