My family is... Not a healthy or happy one. I imagine most people know this by now. Yet, for reasons that I honestly do not understand, my parents are still together. Toxic, painful, continuously arguing, but still together...
The same cannot be said for extended family. Divorces everywhere. A number of children out of wedlock. Painful intergenerational relations on both side. Lots of "not talking". Lost of... Honestly, relationships that are far more negative than they are positive. As the black sheep "loser" of the family, I can't tell you how shit my relationship with nearly all my cousins is, right now. I could, I suppose, blame myself for that, but I really don't think it is that simple...
I actually don't think this is that uncommon, where I live. Sure, most people don't have family quite as toxic as my own, however divorce is utterly ubiquitous. Siblings not getting along is probably more common than not. And honestly, it feels like people almost expect families to behave like this - not communicating, not really talking, and generally... Not behaving like civilised adults. At least amongst the majority "white" population, in addition to the "blak" population (among whom it is most definitely even worse, lol), this is... All too common.
Thoughts? What's it like for you lot, where you live? Do you get along with your extended family? Are you close to them? I realise that I am almost certainly an outlier, where my family are fucking shit, in addition to being the "black sheep loser to end all black sheep losers", but... I'm just curious.
I like the idea that "family is the people you choose to include in it", but I am yet to find my... "One". I'm honestly yet to really find anyone. So I don't have that to have as my "core". I'm sure it's very different for those that do. Unfortunately, though, I'm not sure I will ever even find that...
So yeah. Pretty blackpilled about "family", at the moment, after mounting betrayals, I have to be honest. Would appreciate some... Alternative insights, if your life experience differs in that way.
I get along pretty well with extended family. I wouldn't say I'm close with most of them. I don't even talk to most of them outside of family gatherings where I see them annually at best. A couple cousins I text with and see more often than that. One who's teenage son is like my own kid to me. With the close ones it wasn't always this way. I decided a few years ago to make an effort and spend time trying to get to know some of them. Some of that didn't stick, others did. The key point being I had to specifically try.
So, the answer is it varies from barely talking to really close. Most are married and have stayed married. Although none of our parents remain married of any of my cousins on either of my parents side. Maybe learned from experience growing up? Who knows. There can be a lot of dysfunction too, but that's also more-so with the generation above me and not my own. So among my own generation we do a lot of talking about how nuts our parents generation is and how they are always fighting.