Politics, overdrinking and not flushing: How to get kicked out of Thanksgiving dinner
Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away and travel experts are predicting it to once again be the year’s busiest holiday for travel.
Nearly 80 million people traveled over 50 miles or more from home before and after Thanksgiving last year, according to AAA. While 5.8 million people flew to their Thanksgiving destination, more than 71 million drove.
No matter how someone travels during that week, it will be stressful, but it’s not like hosting is all easy and stress free. When you have people in your home — no matter if it’s parents, siblings or in-laws — the dynamic can quickly turn dicey.
There are times when guests can be so rude, crude and annoying that you want to rescind their invitation faster than you can serve pumpkin pie. WTOP spoke to tourists and locals on the National Mall to find out their Thanksgiving guest nightmares.
“Don’t bring your political drama,” Megan Lyle said. “That would also get you thrown out of the house.”
Lyle, who lives in Baltimore, was showing her sister-in-law Meghan around the nation’s capital during her visit from Portland, Maine.
Meghan will be playing Thanksgiving host this year, and said there is one easy way to get thrown out of her place: “Make fun of all the dog hair in my house.”
“They are part of the family, so, you’re out,” Meghan said.
Walking by the Washington Monument were three friends who were on a girls’ trip in D.C.
Lauren O’Connor, Leah Bernick and Logan Takac, who all attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte together, had differing opinions on what could prompt a Thanksgiving Day booting.
“Any commentary on the food, you got to go,” Takac said. “If you give me a tip or a trick, get out, bye!”
Bernick added to Takac’s comments by saying she doesn’t want to hear complaints about the food being late, and O’Connor made it clear her turkey would be served with spirits.
Dry Thanksgiving was something O’Connor does not want to hear.
“If they’re like, ‘I’m not drinking this Thanksgiving, it’s going to be a dry Thanksgiving,’” O’Connor said. “I’m sorry, you are not invited to Thanksgiving.”
With the total opposite opinion is Ray Wallace. He and his wife are celebrating their wedding anniversary in D.C. alongside their daughter who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
For Wallace, overdrinking will get you kicked out of his home in Fort Meyers, Florida. “Sometimes, they just want to let loose cause they got the day off work. It sucks,” he said.
While Beth Barlee made it clear that putting your shoes on her couch would cause you to get the boot, her husband Bobby didn’t want you to grab the TV remote and change channels.
“On Thanksgiving, when football is on? That’s even worse than the shoes,” he said. “Yeah, I’d definitely have to kick you out, sorry.”
One of the best examples of a reason to kick a guest out during the Thanksgiving holiday was from a native of South Africa.
J.J., who now lives in Virginia, answered with a slight smile: “Not flush. I’ve had people do that before.”