What to Say to Family at the Holidays: Boundary Scripts for the Table You Have to Sit At
Sixteen pages for the holiday gatherings where the comments come fast, the questions come faster, and you are also trying to keep a small human fed. Script library for the most common moments. A pre-gathering worksheet. A grounding card library for the bathroom break. A debrief page for the drive home.
Instant download. Print at home on A4 or US Letter. Your receipt and re-download link arrive by email.
Look inside
Pages from the file you'll download, not a mock-up.
Holidays with extended family are the moment where every previously-deferred conversation lands at the dinner table at the same time. The body comment. The pregnancy question. The “are you sure you’re feeding the baby enough” comment. The “back in my day” comment, three times before dessert.
This pack is for the hours of those gatherings, and the drives home.
What’s inside
Sixteen pages:
- The pre-gathering worksheet. Who will be there. Which comments are likely. What you want for yourself. The two things you will not engage on, no matter what.
- The script library. Twenty scripts for the most common comments. The body comment. The pregnancy-or-not-yet comment. The “you look tired” comment. The unsolicited parenting advice. The “back in my day” comment. The political comment. The drinking-or-not-drinking comment.
- The “I am not engaging with this” page. Three short sentences that close a topic without making it into a confrontation. To be practiced out loud, briefly, before you go.
- The grounding-card library. Ten cards. The bathroom break, the kitchen break, the “I need to nurse” exit. Small physical moves that reset the nervous system in two minutes.
- The kid-handoff plan. Who is watching the kid during the meal. Who they tell first if they need something. The hand signal you and your partner use across the table.
- The departure script. The polite, firm version of “we are leaving now.”
- The drive-home debrief. Five lines. What landed. What you said well. What you would do differently. What you want for next year.
- The day-after page. A short page for the day after, when the comments are still echoing.
Format
Instant-download PDF, US Letter + A4. Print, fold, slip into your bag. Personal use only.
From Soothemade Notes, a small apothecary of printables, planners, and cards for the unphotographed parts of new parenthood. Made slowly, in plain language.
