I’ll start off by saying I’m an only child. I’ve suffered with anxiety for the last 15 years. I take medication and it helps the majority of the time, except when Christmas family travels come into play. My aunt (mom’s sister) and her partner come into town usually either for Thanksgiving or Christmas. When they come, they bring their two large dogs with them. Neither myself nor my parents are dog people, especially when it comes to large indoor dogs. I also have a two year old who is horrified of large dogs, and she spends a lot of time at my parent’s house, especially during the holidays when she’s out of school. They know this about all of us, but choose to bring them anyway. My mom won’t ask them not to bring them because 1. My mom is extremely non confrontational and 2. my aunt is extremely sensitive and would have her feelings hurt. My mom has expressed that my daughter is terrified of them but that changed nothing. They don’t have children if their own, so I understand that they consider the dogs their children, but they fail to see what a burden it is for the rest of the family. The real issue comes into play with my dad. He doesn’t have the best relationship with my aunt and her partner for several reasons I won’t get into, but they are cordial and things go smoothly enough when they come for a visit and the dogs do not come. The entire time they’re here visiting (they never say how long they’re staying, it could be a week but has turned into a month before) I feel like I’m walking on eggshells. My dad constantly complains to me about the dogs and my aunts, and it makes my anxiety skyrocket. I totally Understand this is a worry that’s outside of my control, but you know how anxiety is, rationalization doesn’t help much. What is supposed to be an exciting time for our family turns into me constantly stressing, avoiding family situations where they are all involved, and being nervous to talk to my dad for fear of what derogatory thing he’ll say about my aunts or mom. We live five minutes away from my parents and talk everyday and see each other multiple Times a week. My parent’s relationship also is not great. They don’t talk much at all so instead of them working this out between themselves, I become the middle man and I hate it. I’m also extremely non confrontational so I’m not going to say anything to anyone, especially my aunts. If I said something to my dad he would get mad and shut off completely. My mom knows how I feel about the situation but she’s left in an awkward spot because this is her sister who lives several states away and only comes to town a few times a year to visit family and their elderly mother. I don’t really know why I’m sharing this other than to vent. I’m also 5 months pregnant so my hormones are all over the place and them visiting is literally consuming my every thought.