My husband and I moved closer to immediate family when I was pregnant for help with childcare.
Since our move and since we didn’t know anyone, his sister has kindly included us in their social gatherings with their cousins and their partners.
It’s been 2 years now, I’ve made an effort to click with them, but our values are just so different (i.e, we’ve both lived from cities to cities, and traveled his cousins and sister have all stayed in the same place, most of them are closed-minded and conservative). Each interaction for me feels forced and a chore to me. Somehow I thought it’s my fault for not fitting in.
I started to meet and hang out with people similar to me, and I am gainjng my confidence back socially. The thing is, his cousins and sister host events that I hate going to! I value authenticity a lot so it really bothers me to go to these birthdays and parties.
How can I manage my interactions with them without it becoming a big deal? Since they’re family, I can’t just ghost them, and can’t make excuses to avoid these events all the time since we live here.