My grandson and his girlfriend have been together for over two years, and their relationship has reached the point where you view them as a single unit: rarely do you mention him without implicitly including her, she’s expected at any family event he’s at, his younger siblings adore her. She’s one of the family.
His paternal uncle (other side) has recently stated that she’s not welcomed to his family’s Wisconsin cabin, likely because he doesn’t want them sleeping together. Yes, his prerogative, but idiotic (especially because his current marriage is his second and I’d bet against them remaining chaste until marriage. Could be wrong. None of my business. But still…]
End result: in solidarity, my grandson’s father and sister aren’t going to the cabin for the annual July 4th family get-together. Everyone loses.
This reminded me of another couple I knew who lived together for over a decade before getting married, much to his parents’ concern and consternation. As a result, any visit from their home – they lived and worked in New York City – required the additional expense of hotel reservations as they wouldn’t be allowed to sleep together at his parents’ home. To their credit, they stuck to their guns and refused to relent to the family pressure.
On one trip back to the midwest, they decided to go camping. To keep costs down, he asked to borrow the family’s camping equipment instead of incurring additional expense in buying/renting . His father said no: in his mind, an unmarried couple sleeping together under canvas is no different than an unmarried couple sleeping under the roof of his house.
Hence the origin of my phrase Camping In Sin.
Image Credit
“Sucker Lake Camping” by Loimere is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
