You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.
Hey, it's Marielle.
I have a family member who will not be named, who is a remote hog.
When we're gathered together as a fam, they want to watch what they want to watch.
Doesn't matter what anybody else wants to watch.
It's always been like this.
And every year on Christmas,
They want to watch a Christmas story and then unfailingly some other films that I'm either tired of or not interested in.
I love them.
I do.
And I know this is not the most serious of problems, but it drives me up a wall.
Somehow though,
realizing that this is going to happen every Christmas takes some of the sting out of it.
I don't know if there's a way to avoid stress during the holiday season,
but I do think we can minimize it by being more realistic about what to expect.
Sahej Korkoli is a therapist, writer, and founder of Brown Girl Therapy.
A lot of her work centers around the experience of immigrants and their children.
There's something about this time of year where we think about our family and we're like,
oh, it's going to be fine.
Everything is going to be great this year.