Relaxation takes different forms

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My family meets up with my dad’s sister and her family in the summer, and we rent a beach house. We love to spend our day at the ocean and play board games and cook in our beach house.

However, there is a member of the family who insists on being idle. He never comes to the ocean or joins in activities. Instead, he sits in the main room and watches television the whole day. Often it is a show that is upsetting to me.

How can we get him to not have the television on and not disrupt our relaxing vacation without offending him in the process?

GENTLE READER: If this relative is your minor child, you say, “I want you out there on the beach right now. We’re not here so you can shut yourself up watching television.”

If he is neither a minor nor your child, Miss Manners recommends that you get out on the beach yourself, thus avoiding being offended by his choice of television programs and letting him spend his holiday relaxing as he sees fit.