Ranting

[Guest]

I just got home from a weekend at my mom's house. The house, as always was packed with people...

my oldest sister and her two kids
my other older sister and her girlfriend
me, my husband and our two kids
my little sister and her kid
my other little sister and her boyfriend
my step-sister and her husband and kid
gramma
grampa
step-dad and mom

I hate crowds. I don't deal well with noise. And, as the middle child, it's my job to deal with everyone's shit with a smile.

None of my sisters miss an opportunity to tell me what a horrible parent I am. My oldest sister is fond of lines like "I lost 11 pounds this month, but it looks like you found them."

My step-sister visits about once every three months, and takes the opportunity to unload a tremendous amount of shit on my mom and step-dad. I'm talking stuff that happened when she was two years old. 28 years of backlogged bullshit dumped on their shoulders constantly.

And this trip, her daughter had strep throat. She was supposed to go to the doctor on friday to go on antibiotics, but her mother went out Thursday night and was too hungover to make it to the appointment on Friday. So, the kid spent all weekend being sick and spreading germs.

My nephew beats the shit out of my daughter, and his mom lets him. The most I've ever seen her do is say "Hey, you know it's not nice to hit. If you can't get along on the swingset, lets go play basketball."

I've discovered that the only way to cope is to chain smoke and drink a lot. Which means my throat is killing me and I have a headache from hell.

Aren't families great?

**This rant has been brought to you by PCG, please return to your regularly scheduled program.**

 

[Laurel]

I hate my blood family, too. And I hate crowds. I feel your pain, PCG.

 

[April]

That's one of the reasons I moved to Germany. Twice.
And I haven't seen my family in 2 1/2 years.
I have yet to see a family that isn't dysfunctional in some way.

 

[AusTess]

Shit.


I LOVE my family.
There's me,I'm special.*l*
I'm kinda 2nd last.
Of 5.
The eldest is my brother.
He lives half the country away and is like 20 years older than me.
I rarely see him.The 2nd eldest is my sister,B.
I love her to bits,she lives an hour away and we'll visit most weekends.
Then there's J,the problem child,but yep,I love her too.
She's great fun to drink with.
And then there's the baby,spoilt fucking rotten,we have our moments but i love her.She lives also,half the country away.
They have given me 12 neices and nephews,and you guessed it,i love them to bits as well.

My Dad.
My dad,what can i say about my dad?
He's a man in a million.
Scarey when i was younger,all my friends were terrified of him.
covered in tatts,about 5ft 5 with a shock of snowey white hair.
He's stuck by my mum through a lot.

And then there's my mum.
Again,what can i say about my mum?
4 strokes,the first when she was 45 which took away all her right side.
The 2nd and 3rd were 15 years later.
And the 4th was while she was in surgery.
It took her speach,which she had to regain at 65.
And her vision which sadly will never be the same.
And now she's fighting lung cancer.
With my dad by her side,like always.

Families can suck.

Ya just gotta learn not to sweat the small stuff.
Life is way too fucking short.



Anyway,there's my rave for the night.

god I'm boring.

 

[Lost Cause]

You need to close the door, go out to the garage, start your motorcycle, and ride off to which ever direction your front wheel takes you. My H-D has always been my "drug" and escape from every type of bullshit that life has to offer. If I lost everything, all I need is my bike.
"Jesus died so we could ride."

 

[Calamity Jane]

I don't hate them.

They make me crazy, and it's always stressful to take them en masse. One on one, we're fine. I enjoy the hell out of visiting my mom and having one or two of my sisters stop by. I have lunch once a month with one of my sisters, and talk to her almost everyday on the phone.

But when they're all together, it's like a pack mentality takes over. Everyone has to be better than everyone else.

The biggest stressor is my step-sister. I hate to see what she does to my parents. She fucking made my step-dad cry. And then she was all happy, like she'd accomplished some great feat by making him admit that he was the one who left her mom and not the other way around. (Never mind the fact that he left her mom because she was a heroin addict who kept trying to get him back into drugs). Pisses me off that they let her get away with the shit time and again.

Ah well. I'm home now. In my quiet house, 150 miles from most of them. The next family get together isn't for a couple of months. Plenty of time to recuperate.

 

[freescorfr]

That's a real chorizo in your av, pagan, if I am not mistaken.

 

[freescorfr]

That's one of the reasons I moved to Germany. Twice.
And I haven't seen my family in 2 1/2 years.
I have yet to see a family that isn't dysfunctional in some way.

April, always such common sense.

The truth is that the people who piss us off most are those closest too us. They have the real power to hurt.

And those of us who love the profound philosophical, social and political discussions and the NEWS, love it as a great distraction of the fucking hard work it is to live with those we love.

 

[SilverVeil]

I have seen my family exactly once in 7 years for 1/2 hour.
And I like it that way.
The only ones I even stay in contact with by phone are my dad and my Aunt on his side.

I have no intention of seeing them either if I can possibly help it.
I have washed my hands of the whole lot of them. Less heartache that way.

Self preservation.

 

[April]

The truth is that the people who piss us off most are those closest too us. They have the real power to hurt.

Asbolutely. Once you let someone in, behind the walls and within arm's reach, they have tremendous power over you. It's not easy to deal with that.

 

[Jimi]

April, always such common sense.

The truth is that the people who piss us off most are those closest too us. They have the real power to hurt.

Amen to that. I can handle my folks for about two days - and then I start picking up their bad habits, and dumping them on my son and wife. Not pleasant...

So I limit Christmas to Christmas Eve day to Boxing Day, and indicate that the beds need to be vacated... (in a very diplomatic way, of course )