Another red flag: You imagine the drama of introducing your partner to your great-uncle Jerry and the rest of your extended family and think, Ugh, is it even worth it? Family strife can tax even the happiest of couples — so if your relationship is on the rocks, it can lead to total chaos. Danielle, 23, has been with her boyfriend for a year and a half. She's happy, but her parents "have explicitly told me he’s not up to par,” she says. He's still deciding whether he should visit her family for the holidays. "I have mixed feelings about it, too," she admits. Danielle is willing to tough it out, but for Sarah, age 28, the effort just wasn't worth it: "My partner and I were already having issues when the holidays came last year, but the thing that broke up our relationship right before Christmas was the stress of him meeting my parents for the first time. I grew up in an evangelical household and he was basically a left-wing activist type...dealing with all the tension was the nail in the coffin for us."