Photo:Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty
Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty
Mina Starsiak Hawkis opening up about how she spent the holidays while navigating tensions with family members.
Mina says the couple used Turkey Day as a test run for how to handle the situation. However, afterward, she says, “Thanksgiving really didn’t sit well with me.”
“Steve and I didn’t end up doing Thanksgiving with the whole family,” she explains. “I felt like the fallout from not being there was going to be more manageable than the bad feelings I would have from being there and sitting at a table and pretending everything was okay.”
Mina hadpreviously suggestedthat she might arrive and leave early to family gatherings in order to avoid flare-ups.
“We went and saw my dad and my stepmom before Thanksgiving, so at least we got that, but I know that’s not the same for him, and that sits really heavy on me,” she says.
Mina Starsiak Hawk with husband Steve Hawk and their two children.Mina Starsiak Hawk/Instagram
Mina Starsiak Hawk/Instagram
TheGood Bonesalum spent the next few weeks reflecting on her plans for Christmas.
As she sharedon a previous episode ofMina AFin late November, she and Steve landed on a compromise after they received conflicting invitations to spend Christmas Eve at his grandmother’s house and at her sister’s cookie-making pajama party.
Mina says that plan ended up working out. The couple brought their two children, 5-year-old son Jack and 3-year-old daughter Charlie, to his grandma’s gathering, and after an hour, Mina and the kids left for the other event while Steve stayed on to spend more time with his side of the family.
As for Christmas Day, while Steve didn’t make it to every event, Mina says, “I did end up going to all the family celebrations.”
“After Thanksgiving, I just kind of adjusted my mindset to ‘I can’t control any of this,’” she continues. “I’ve said my piece, people know where I stand, and me being angstful or upset or stressed out at this point is really affecting no one but me. So, I’m just going to move on mentally and make the decisions that I think are right, do the things that I think are best, and if other people don’t, then they’ve shown me who they are and where they stand and I can make my own decisions from there.”
“There’s a lot kind of lingering and unsettled in my family land, and I’ve finally gotten to the place where I’m just okay with that,” she added. “And I don’t need to put any more energy into it until some outside energy is put into it in a way that makes it worth re-engaging.”
Mina has been open about bad blood with family members during previous conversations on her podcast, saying she wasn’t“in a great place”with either Tad or her mom.
Mina Starsiak Hawk with husband Steve Hawk.Mina Starsiak Hawk/Instagram
Ahead ofGood Bones’ series finale in October, shereflected onwhat she wishes she had known before finding fame on the long-running renovation show.
“I think I knew … that this was going to be hard and it was going to challenge relationships, because when you put anything under a spotlight, in a pressure cooker, there’s the opportunity to explode,” she said. “And I myself am not stable enough to not explode at times."
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Mina noted that her “whole complicated family organization,” many members of which were involved in her business and in the creation ofGood Bones,includes a lot of different personalities and “people with so many different issues, weaknesses, things left to learn.”
She added, “I just wish I had known how bad it could be.”
source: people.com
