CMV: It's the middle of the holiday season, and you *should* ruin Christmas for your family by refusing to attend until they get their shit together.

I'm going to be blunt about it because I don't want to mince words.<br><br>If your family is like mine, you've likely got an uncle and aunt who are proud anti vaxxers, and are now protesting lockdowns and refusing to wear masks despite it being the law in many states.<br><br>I've been no contact with my family for some time now, but my husband's family is a different story. He's always been closer to his parents than I am mine, and has a particularly close relationship with his sister and her daughter.<br><br>Suffice to say, my in-laws are worried about the legality of the lockdowns and the impact on small businesses in our community, and are now openly questioning the validity of the statistics that suggest things are getting worse. They also have strong feelings about freedom, and believe that mandating masks is a breach of their personal rights.<br><br>My husband and I are both in healthcare, and he buries bodies for a living. He literally puts corpses in the ground and builds the headstones. I've worked in medicine for more than 15 years, and he used to work in hospice care.<br><br>When my husband's sister found out that his family was starting to question the validity of the virus, she didn't take it well. She hasn't spoken to her parents since, which is partly why we've been helping take care of her daughter for her.<br><br>Now, to the point:<br><br>Our in-laws invited us to stay with them over Christmas, and my husband and I outright refused, in part because his sister asked us not to. We also don't want to risk getting sick.<br><br>My in-laws are pissed off now, and I've gotten several calls from my husband's mother in the last week that I've ignored. She also sent me several very angry text messages, telling me that I'm ruining Christmas for everyone because I'm being stubborn.<br><br>And I think at this point, there are a lot of people out there like me.<br><br>I want to make it clear that I'm not necessarily talking about families who are simply pro-Trump. I'm talking specifically about families that are protesting lockdowns and refusing to wear masks, or who question the validity of the virus. I'm also talking about families who go out of their way to thumb their noses at public health orders, like staying at home and shutting down businesses.<br><br>If you're being asked to stay with these kind of people over the holidays, I think you should flat out refuse.<br><br>But I also think you should take it a step further than that, and tell them why you're not coming.<br><br>And that brings me to my main point:<br><br>If you're being asked to spend the holidays with people who are putting you, themselves, and the rest of the world at risk by refusing to comply with public health orders or take the appropriate necessary precautions to avoid contracting COVID, then you *should* ruin Christmas for them. And you should be openly transparent about why you're doing it, without being combative or confrontational.<br><br>First and foremost, if you go to stay with family and refuse to take precautions, you are putting yourself and everyone else at risk of contracting what is essentially a plague that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people.<br><br>This is a real issue that's already killed a massive number of people and has put a huge strain on every healthcare system around the world. I've personally seen what this virus can do to a human being, and I would be devastated if my recklessness caused someone else to suffer that way.<br><br>But that's not all, and this is an important thing to consider:<br><br>If you go and stay with family who are refusing to follow public health orders, and you get sick, you're going to feel guilty, because you knew what you were walking into.<br><br>I can't stress that enough. If you go and stay with family who you *know* are putting you at risk, and you get sick because of them, you're going to wake up in the morning feeling like you've failed yourself and your loved ones in a big way.<br><br>You're also going to place a massive burden on healthcare workers. I'm talking weeks of hard core, back breaking work; 12 hour shifts during which you will be sitting and standing on your feet, getting call after call, watching patient after patient get admitted and die in the emergency department.<br><br>I've worked 87 hour weeks and cried myself to sleep at night because I was so exhausted and sad, and I'm not alone. I've watched people I care about lose their jobs because of the toll this disease has taken on them.<br><br>And all of this can be prevented.<br><br>If you don't go to stay with your family over the holidays, it may be sad, but you will still be alive.<br><br>And if you *do* go to stay with family who are putting you at risk, and you get sick, you will be one of hundreds of thousands of victims of this horrific disease, and you will have no one to blame for it but yourself.<br><br>Don't be that guy. If someone you know is putting you and the rest of the world at risk, just say no.<br><br>And I think that's a fairly reasonable view to hold.<br><br>Now, please, change it.<br><br>Edit: I'm going to bed so I'll no longer be replying to any comments. Some people very clearly just enjoy being contrarian, and have no interest in having a real discussion.