My husband belongs to a very large family. Like, if you swing by the house of anyone he’s related to the odds are good there are ten other people there. A last minute get together is 20 people. And actual planned events at least 100 people.
There are so many of them they get married all the time and that’s 400-500 people.
I like many of his family members but it’s sensory hell. I don’t think he realized until very recently that my issue is not just introversion. It’s physically painful to stand in a noisy room.
The next wedding is in August (I think) and he said to me, “How about you plan to watch Wee Weasel and I can go by myself and say we didn’t find a babysitter?”
Fine by me.
Now we had a birthday party over the weekend that turned out nicely. I sat in the shade with the rest of the introverts outdoors while everyone else was inside. I went in for cake and ice cream but noped right out of there pretty quickly.