 (Nick Galifianakis for The Post) | Adapted from an online discussion. Dear Carolyn: My son was married last Sunday, and it was a wonderful day about a three-hour drive from where we all live. My sister and my son are very fond of each other, and my son babysat their now young-teen boys often. We knew they wouldn't stay till the end. But we hadn't expected they would leave directly after the meal, before any speeches, on the grounds their child "hadn't done his homework" for the following school day. My son was extremely upset, though later he said — through slightly gritted teeth — that he was over it. I said to him that I know my sister, her husband and her boys have had a tough time lately. Plus my brother-in-law doesn't always understand the emotional connotations of what he says and is hopeless at time management. My sister was enjoying herself hugely, and said she wished they could have stayed. There's no way to change what has happened, and no amends or salvage to be made. The wedding was otherwise pure joy. My problem is that I am still, irrationally, incandescently furious with my sister and brother-in-law on behalf of my son. I always find avoidable but irreversible losses disproportionately upsetting and the hardest to process. I'm not sure I trust myself to keep silent to my sister and brother-in-law forever about something that really hurt my son. Is there any way I can say anything, if only in response when she says at some point that she's sorry they couldn't stay longer? — Upset | 
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