Family?

Pronunciation:/ˈfamɪli, -m(ə)l-/noun (plural families)

What is your definition of family?

Wikipedia "In human context, a family (from Latin: familiare) is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children. Extended from the human "family unit" by affinity, economy, culture, tradition, honor, and friendship are concepts of family that are metaphorical, or that grow increasingly inclusive extending to nationhood and humanism. There are also concepts of family that break with tradition within particular societies, or those that are transplanted via migration to flourish or else cease within their new societies. As a unit of socialisation and a basic institution key to the structure of society, the family is the object of analysis for sociologists of the family. Genealogy is a field which aims to trace family lineages through history. In science, the term "family" has come to be used as a means to classify groups of objects as being closely and exclusively related. In the study of animals it has been found that many species form groups that have similarities to human "family"—often called "packs."

Oxford Dictionary:  [treated as singular or plural] a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unita group of people related by blood or marriage:
- Friends and family can provide support

Well I am simply intrigued by this last footnote.


What is the deal with famillies?


My family consists of myself, my husband and our 3 children all living in domestic bliss (yea right!) in semi suburbia. So all fairly a-typical so far.


As we branch up the family tree a little things start to get a bit weird. It has long been my suggestion that the monumental f*ck up's the rest of our 'family's' have made are the reasons why my husband and I were pushed together within this crazy cosmos, why neither of us wants to bring our children up following the examples set by us and why the two of us live in a perpetually fragile state of mind. 


Now I know many people reading this will think I am being disrespectful to my family. If this is already the case then read no further. This is not disrespect; it's truth. Stone cold truth. It is also why I aspire to be everything my family are not.

We'll start with my parents. This consists of my mother & my step-father (whom mother is seperated from), My father and his partner. The number of 'partners' each parent has had in the past 28 years since they split is relatively high. Lest not forget they got married when mother was pregnant with me and were divorced by the time I was 2. Not quite a match made in heaven.

My mother was a bit of a wild child and by all accounts has spent the last 13 years trying to recapture this youth. She is now pushing 50 and really needs to grow up and accept that her youth is over. She has one sibling. She had numerous fathers.

My father comes from a large family. He is 1 of eight children. The second born but the first boy. Somewhat favoured. He was going through the rudementary wild stages when he met me mother and hence fell in love with her hedonistic tendancies and free spirited approach to life. A breath of fresh air from the drudgery of work, work and well more work that he had witnessed of his own father as a child. Clearly the novelty wore off when mothers attitude to life involved another man. Which I remember..

So wholed up in a council flat on a notorious council estate back in the 80's my father compelted his appreticeship and worked hard as a tradesman. He expected to come home to domestic bliss, dinner on the table, baby in bed and wife with her legs open (this last is a assumption on my part).

My parents are somewhat unique in their complete inability to be remotely interested in raising a child yet live in complete ignorance of their inability. Hmmm.


There hope for me yet? As for support. Yea right!