In-Laws from Hell·
THE CHINA CHALLENGE
During a multi-city Chinese adventure, a family's ambitious itinerary collides with Doug's failing cardio, forcing a tense clash over pace, priorities, and family history.
Should they have slowed the whole trip down?
Be one of the first to vote.
Doug couldn't make it half a mile before the family trip to China turned into a fight about his cardio.
The whole group had gone together: a 39-year-old poster, his sister, 36, her husband Doug, 40, their 12-year-old son, the poster's wife, and the poster's two children, 11 and 9. The poster and his sister were both born in China, but their family moved to Dallas when they were young. She stayed there, got married, and had a son. He later moved to the Pacific Northwest with his wife and children.
Their parents had raised them on the same habits: healthy food, lots of movement, and no big tolerance for sitting still. The poster said that carried through into adulthood, and into how they raised their own kids. So when his sister said she wanted her son to see China after finishing seventh grade, especially after loving the ancient China unit and the Terracotta Warriors, the idea seemed perfect.
The timing worked, too. The poster was already planning a trip to Chongqing to see family, so he built the rest of the itinerary around it and added his sister's family. The trip stretched across Beijing, Xi'an, Nanjing, and Chongqing, with most of the logistics handled by the poster. He says he tried to hint that the schedule would involve a lot of walking. Doug did not seem to take that seriously.
That became obvious early. At landmarks, Doug struggled to keep pace, and the sister often stayed back with him while the poster, his wife, and the children moved on with tour groups.
The trip really came to a head near the poster's grandmother's hometown outside Chongqing, which he described as steep, vertical, and full of stairs. On a hot, humid day, he took the kids toward a local market by way of a park his family had helped build. Doug insisted on coming despite being warned it would be a long walk.
Half a mile in, he was already having trouble. The poster slowed down, but the kids kept going ahead. After they reached the park, he convinced Doug to take a taxi back while he continued on foot with the children to the market.
When they all got back, Doug was sulking and the sister was upset. She said the poster had been inconsiderate for not just taking a taxi in the first place. The poster replied that a taxi would have taken longer because of the way the area was laid out, and the kids would have missed the park tied to their family history.
The sister then said she had not realized how physically demanding the trip would be, since she let the poster handle most of the planning and he had not accounted for Doug's limits. The poster said he could've been more considerate of Doug's cardio, but he did not want to cut short what he called an amazing and educational experience for his nephew and kids.