Why doesn't God let us pick our families?

I had talked with my Dad and Step-Mom about watching my daughter while Hubby and I take our honeymoon vacation. "How long will you be gone" they ask? I said "2-3 days". They said "sure". Fiance makes the flight arrangements without talking to me first, and we now have a 5 day honeymoon. I sent an e-mail to the parents (knowing full well they would freak) and received a brief response stating basically that there was no way in hell they were going to stay at my house for 5 days without anything to do. Gee, thanks Dad...

I can understand being out of town and not knowing where anything is, but that's what the Internet is for. Find some stuff you have always wanted to do and go do it. The daughter will be in school and goes to an after school program. She will be gone 9 hours a day. Dallas is one of the hot spots of America. Figure out things you would like to do that you have never done and do them!! Not my parents... They are retired so do the same things every day. Get up, check the news, check the e-mail, surf the Internet for 2-3 hours, check the yard/house work that needs to be done, eat lunch, take a nap, check the news, eat dinner, get sauced and go to bed. Next day, lather, rinse and repeat.

Then you have my wonderful Mom that has an opinion for everything. She asks 'dear, what do you want to do with X'? I tell her my thoughts and then she proceeds to explain why my way is the worst possible way it could ever be done and I am a complete moron. It doesn't matter what X even is. She will always have a better way that it should be done.

My favorite part of merging families and getting married is her never ending series of questions about what am I going to do if ______ happens? In this blank she has inserted just about every situation that could possibly ever happen to anyone, ever. No, I am NOT exaggerating here. What if the kid gets sick while I am out of town and she is staying with Step-Dad? What if my kid and his kid get in a fight about something? What if Step-Dad has to discipline daughter? On and on and on... I finally told her that while we had discussed many aspects of joining our lives, it was simply not possible to discuss every situation and that we would figure out how to handle these events as they presented themselves....just like every other family out there in the world.

She was not amused.

Frankly, neither was I.

So, instead of freaking out today, I am going to take some deep breaths in and let them back out again. Swear a few times then regroup and go with plan B. The daughter will actually be way happier with plan B anyways. She absolutely adores the 15 year old daughter of one of my good friends who also happens to live in my neighborhood. They have already offered there assistance as they adore my daughter as much in return. They also have three small dogs that love to play dress up. Yes, heaven for the girl. Maybe then she will stop pouting about not being able to go with us on our honeymoon...