Sick of being taxi driver and a cook

My family treat me like slave

WHY do I end up doing all the work and the driving around at this time of year?

I’m sick of being the go-to guy for everyone who needs picking up, dropping off or fed.

I’m already booked to take my parents to the cemetery tomorrow (to put flowers on my grandma’s grave) and to drive my son 50 miles to his girlfriend’s parents’ house on Saturday.

As usual New Year’s Eve is going to be crazy because my family all expect me to be on standby.

Last year my wily wife stood in front of me and said: “Watch me”. With that she downed virtually a whole bottle of white wine in a dozen glugs.

By getting sloshed it meant that she didn’t have to cook, drive or even join me at 3am, waiting for our daughters to stagger out of a club.

My sister always Christmas while we do dinner of New Year’s Day.

From the vegans and the vegetarians to the gluten-intolerant, it already looks as though I’m going to be cooking six different dishes.

I’m not saying my family are fussy, but if they don’t get three kinds of potatoes (mash, roast and chipped), then my life isn’t does a big worth living. Last year my wife flopped down on January 2 and gasped: “Well, I’m not doing all that again.”

But she’d done nothing – I organised everything from the shopping, cooking to the clearing away.

And that’s what it’s like most of the year too. Easter and family birthdays all seem to fall to me even though we both work fulltime. How is that fair?

I don’t even know if I’ve got enough energy to get through the next few days.

In many ways, getting back to work will be a blessed relief – and that can’t be right, can it? everything has to same year after year.

What about going away next Christmas and experiencing something completely different?

Suggest it now so that your wife and extended family know where you’re coming from.

Please during dinner.

Insist everyone else pitches in and washes up.

I’m sure that your wife works extremely hard too, but you are a couple and you are in this together. don’t that kill New be the yourself Year’s

MY girlfriend told me not to buy her any birthday presents this year.

She said there was nothing she needed, so I simply got her a card with a sincere message inside – and she went mad.

I can’t win. Now she keeps saying things like: “You could have got me something small.” I’m not a mean person, and she knows that, but I’m not a mind-reader either.

My problem is that I’m straightforward and don’t understand mixed messages. How do I get her to give me a break when we’re supposed to be visiting my folks for a New Year’s Eve party?

JANE SAYS: It’s extremely frustrating when people don’t say what they mean. Surely life’s too short for mind games.

Tell your girlfriend that you now need to draw a line under the affair because it’s stressing you out.

You’re sorry that she’s upset, but you now understand the rules; you now realise that a present will always be expected in future.

But also ask her to meet you halfway by being more honest from now on. She’s not five and you struggle to respect someone who says one thing but means something else.

UNDER PRESSURE: The heavy demands his ungrateful family makes are taking their toll JANE SAYS: It sounds as if your entitled family has got you just where they want you. Make it clear to everyone that this is the last hurrah. From January 2 onwards, everything changes. I’m sure that they do expect 50 different dishes every family gathering, but there are limitations. Your goodwill has now officially expired and next year has to be completely different if you’re not to fall out or become bitter and angry. The fact is that your children are growing up and not