Hey everyone, welcome back to the Girls' Night podcast. I'm Stephanie Mae Wilson, and I'm so glad

you're here with me today because we're diving into something that I know so many of us are

dealing with, especially as we head into the summer season of family gatherings and reunions.

As I'm recording this, I'm actually about to head off on vacation with my entire extended family.

And I have to tell you, I love the time we get to spend together.

I love that my daughters, Annie and Quinn, are going to get to play with a ton of first, second, and even third cousins.

But I also know that for anyone who does any sort of annual gathering with their family, there's this feeling that it's sort of a check-in time. It's a time when you knew that somebody's going to ask you, so what have

you been up to? And you're going to have to account to them and to yourself what you've been doing

with your life. We're talking about what I like to call the Aunt Sharon effect. There are these

uncomfortable, pointed questions from well-meaning family members

that somehow managed to hit every single insecurity you've been trying not to think about.

You know the ones I'm talking about.

So were you seeing anyone special, followed immediately by, you know, you're not getting any younger.

I was married with three kids by the time I was your age.

Or maybe it's, when are you two going to give me some grandchildren?

Or are you just doing that little blog thing?

Or have you gotten a real job yet?

Que the internal screaming, right?

Here's the thing.

We love our Aunt Sharon's, and we know our Aunt Sharon's love us.

But that doesn't keep these interactions from accidentally stomping on emotional landmines every single time we see these people in our lives. So today, we're going to talk

about why these questions hit so hard, what's really happening underneath the conversations,

...