Imagine the scales of justice. Put your children on one side, and the dog and other people, relatives and the like, on the other. Balance is achieved when you are comfortable with the safety of your children.

Your obligation, in the first instance, is to the safety of your children. The family either gets it or they don't. The degree of resistance is a measure of respect for you and your family. If some one's nose gets out of joint, so be it.

All the tact and sugar coating in the world won't penetrate the denseness of an insensitive person, family or otherwise.

It is not in my DNA to tolerate stupid when it comes to children and dogs. You are a parent first.

My daughter advised me she was uncomfortable with my dogs around her one year old daughter, my granddaughter. And she told me before the child ever came into my home, or was proximate to the dogs. Zero problem. Dogs are not present. Period. Frankly, I think dogs and small children can be an accident waiting to happen, all too often.

I don't want to unnecessarily get sideways with people, and especially family, but right is right and wrong is wrong. Speak up! Make your feelings known! As me Irish mither, God rest her soul, might opine, 'devil take the hindmost' what ever that means.

A day away from a family gathering can be blissfully tranquil, or so it has been my experience.

If this were my family I'd tell her to put the dog away because it just isn't working -- but it's my husbands family...

Perhaps I should check dates before I pontificate. Yes, that would be prudent.