Dear Dr. Date,

I’m in kind of an awkward situation. See, my girlfriend and I have been dating for a few years now, and I know her family pretty well. I normally go home for holidays (my parents are weird about that stuff), but this Thanksgiving my girlfriend and I went to her place for dinner. I was pretty nervous to meet some of her extended family but thought everything else would be smooth sailing. 

Aaaaand of course there was a classic Thanksgiving fight — and this time, I was involved. I know, I know, number one rule of dating is not to argue with your partners’ parents or whatever, but I couldn’t help it. It started with a casual question about opinions on cranberry sauce and ended with her dad throwing the entire plate of sauce against the wall after I declared I “hated it.”

I feel so stupid (what a dumb thing to fight about!) and I’m worried my girlfriend’s parents will never forgive me. I’m really serious about her and was hoping to be invited to future family events! How can I earn forgiveness without compromising my cranberry sauce morals?

Sincerely,

Berry Angry

Dear Berry Angry,

Send a few cans of cranberry sauce to his doorstep with a sincere apology note and offer to cook something next time. You’re both kind of the asshole, but one of you has to be the bigger person, and it should probably be you. At least it wasn’t about politics, right? 

Sincerely,

Dr. Date