FAMILY

[peoplesrjames]

Are any of you close to your immediate family? Ever since I was younger I always felt the urge to be distant from my medium sized immediate family. I've always sought family relationships from outsiders. Is that just me or can anyone else relate?

 

[clg114]

For me, my family is everything and I am very close to them. My wife & I have five kids, eleven grandkids and two great-grandkids. Having a family that big takes up a lot of our time, but it is well worth it. I am not very social and have very little to do with outsiders.

 

[Suzanne]

I am definitely an outsider! I do not believe in blood being thicker than water, idea ie family being more important to non family.

Perhaps it is due to my dreadful childhood, but even then, I never found myself feeling close to family members and always perplexed to why that was so, but I guess maturity helps to understand.

I have siblings but to be honest, I cannot truly say that I love them; in fact it is rather a confusing idea for me. When one of my sisters says she loves me, I am afraid I say it back to be polite, but she might as well not be my sister.

I do not feel sad about this; just curious really.

 

[DogwoodTree]

I'm no longer close with my parents or siblings...I used to think that I was, but it was just me pretending to be what they wanted me to be so they would like me. Once I started backing off of the pretending, they didn't like me anymore and got mad at me a lot, so I pulled away from them.

I'm closer with my DH and kids. I pour myself into my kids, trying to raise them to be healthier and better adjusted and prepared than I was. My DH and I have some problems with the changes I've been going through, in trying to learn how to be myself with people, but he's working hard on his end so we can grow together through this rather than apart.

It's hard on both of us. I'm not very good at meeting his needs, or communicating my own. He's a people-person and is well-liked by anyone who knows him, so it's hard for him to understand what it's like to have pretty much no one who actually likes you...people tolerate me, and like having another person around, but most people don't actually like the real me.

 

[garnetflower13]

I am definitely an outsider! I do not believe in blood being thicker than water, idea ie family being more important to non family.

Perhaps it is due to my dreadful childhood, but even then, I never found myself feeling close to family members and always perplexed to why that was so, but I guess maturity helps to understand.

I have siblings but to be honest, I cannot truly say that I love them; in fact it is rather a confusing idea for me. When one of my sisters says she loves me, I am afraid I say it back to be polite, but she might as well not be my sister.

I do not feel sad about this; just curious really.

It's the same with me! I came from a large family, but none of us are close. We spend more time avoiding one another than being together. Since both my parents are gone, the distance is even greater. I would never trust family members with my deeper self, or seek validation or comfort from them, because they are incapable of giving it.

 

[Mia]

Had lots of girlfriends growing up, my family disliked all of them. They wanted to choose my friends for me, this one and that one from my church, or others from families they knew. With the exception of one younger sister and my Father, didn't get along with any of them. So controlling were they that at a very young age I stayed outside with friends as much as I could. After my Father died I no longer communicated with them at all.

 

[Laconic]

I had a bad childhood and have never been close to any of my family. I talk to my mother a few times a year out of obligation, but no one else. I am happy to have my new family just be my husband and son.