My Christian, old republican southerner father wants me to attend his Christian funeral with all of his surviving relatives present. I don’t believe in any god, he knows that. He needs a religion to give a meaning to his life? Knock yourself out.

Religion is not the main problem here. The main problem is how close minded and fake people are in a southern small town in GA and above all, relatives. 2 aunts love to pretend everything is fine, they excel doing that on funerals and weddings, then stab you in the back as soon as you’re not within ear distance, either need drama to feel important or have way too much free time.

I wouldn’t mind a small Christian ritual with my mother, my brother, a priest and nobody else, but these women and their husbands? They drag everyone down with their stupid grudges about yard sales and business deals made in the early 2020s and seem to be envious of those who left that place and found something better. Last time I saw them, 7 years ago, they complained I don’t call them. What for?

I’m better off without them and don’t have the bandwidth to deal with them.

Family seems to be an identity issue for my father, the idea that his whole family won’t bury him together scares him. I told them I will honor him my way, with luck on the hospital bed where he dies or at home, that mother and brother are welcome to honor him with me, that I won’t attend a funeral with people I don’t like but he is not listening: he is now retorting to manipulate me (it would be so good, wouldn’t it be nice…?)

My father is not cognitively impaired. The easy way out would be to tell him ‘sure, I’ll come to your funeral with all those assholes you care so much about’ and after he dies, ignore it. I suspect my mother would agree, because she wasn’t born in GA and these aunts always felt superior to her, something my father always downplays because ‘we’re family’.

I like treating my father like an adult and want genuine conversations with him. To me, placating him on a thing like this means accepting my father has become a 5 year old who needs to be lied to so he doesn’t start feeling sad or feels I’m attacking him. It doesn’t feel right.

But it feels worse to pretend I respect those lying assholes or to listen to their boring life I don’t care about.

So what do I do?

  • GiantChickDicks@lemmy.ml
    41·
    8 hours ago

    Yikes… Unless something truly terrible happened, that level of pettiness you’re describing is crazy. My family is insane on both sides, so I get things off things being normalized, but barring a close family member from attending a funeral they clearly very much wanted to witness is extreme.

    One thing I learned from my own dysfunctional family is that their past behavior and decisions aren’t an excuse for me to repeat the behavior. Unless you want to carry the drama torch yourself, it’s time to take a step back and look at the big picture. How much do you want this animosity between your mom and aunts to influence your life? If you truly don’t care about them and their opinions, why are they worth you missing your own father’s funeral?

    This year marks the 10 year anniversary of my adoptive mom passing away. There were many people at her funeral that I was happy to never have to see again. I don’t know the details of your situation, but try to keep in mind this is a decision you’ll only get to make once.