The politics of Cottaging

It seems like this year that we will be doing quite a bit of cottaging. My FIL and step MIL have had a cottage since I came on the scene. We have been going up there for years, but not as much since we had the kids. The place wasn't that big - it could accommodate us but if the kids were up in the night we were afraid that everyone would hear it. It made for a less-than-relaxing sleep.

Now they have built a huge addition on the cottage so that everyone can be up there at the same time (us and my husband's step-sis and step-brother). And my because my in laws plan on retiring up there in a few years. Here are a couple of pics of the new place. Nice.

My mom and step-dad just bought a place that they will be taking possession of in a couple of weeks. It is about 20 minutes away from my in-law's place. I haven't been there yet but it looks really nice in the pictures I have seen.

Now comes the balancing act. We have to figure out where to go and try to minimize hurt feelings because we didn't spend time at one of the cottages. I know my mom and step-dad totally understand that we will be splitting our time up and am not too worried about that. I am a little bit more worried about my in laws (not terribly worried though) because they have had their cottage longer and we have been spending less and less time there over the past couple of years.














My solution so far is that I will go to my mom & step-dad's place on some of the weekends when my hubby is working...gives us something to do anyway. (And, while I get along greatly with my in laws, I still feel more comfortable around my own mom). On weekends my hubby has off we will go to the in law's cottage. My hubby has 2 weeks off during the summer and we will split time between the 2 places. Sounds good, right? Let's hope it works out...

I'm sure we will figure it all out and at least I know what I will be doing this summer!