Families Are Complicated

Families are complicated, or mine is at least. I've always wondered how it is possible for some families to be so close to each other, and yet other families hate each other, or just can't seem to get along. My family falls firmly in the "just can't seem to get along" category.


My family situation is actually so complicated that it would be really hard to explain it all on a blog. Let's just break it down a bit. My brother and his family are not on speaking terms with my oldest sister and her family. My oldest sister thinks that my Dad doesn't want anything to do with her. My oldest sister and my older sister do not get along with each other at all. I try to get along with all of my family, but I feel like I am stuck in the middle of everything. All of my siblings live in the same town, and my Dad lives about 20 minutes away. When I come to visit, I actually have to sit down and plan how I am going to visit everyone, especially since we are usually only able to visit for a few days and my niece and nephew are both in school. Oh yes, and I refuse to have anything to do with my oldest sisters husband, who is often at home. So when I come to town, I have to try to take my oldest sister and her son out somewhere so I can spend a bit of time with them. I could arrange to have her for dinner at my other sisters, but since they don't get along well at all, things could get awkward. On the other hand, I feel bad having dinner with the rest of my family while my oldest sister gets left out. On the other other hand, she has caused a lot of problems all on her own and never was the kind of person you wanted to include in anything anyways (I am sorry to have to say that, but she is seriously the killjoy and buzzkill in our family).

To make my family situation even better, everyone talks about each other behind each others backs. Even I am guilty of it, although I try to understand things from every one's point of view and I only complain about someone if it is really merited (i.e because they were talking about me behind my back).

My older sister is a pathological liar so anything that she tells me, about other members of my family or otherwise, is always taken with a grain of salt. In case you're wondering, no she has never been diagnosed as a pathological liar. She does however consistently lie, even about mundane things that no one would care if she did tell the truth. And when you call her on a lie (jn the nicest way possible), she will get defense and angry. She even covers her lies with other lies. In fact, she lies so much that I don't even think she knows half the time when she is actually lying. I think she really believes she's telling the truth.


So, there you have it, my family. Pretty crazy, isn't it? I wish I could say that my husbands side of the family makes up for the craziness of mine, but alas, his family is almost as bad.