Member-only story
My Birth Family Never Bonded
Every once in a while it still hurts a little.
My children and my friends are my family.
My birth family? Meh.
Decades ago I released any expectations from my birth family — and it was the smartest, healthiest thing I have ever done for myself.
Living just far enough away from the geographically grouped remaining family pod, I have very little contact with “them.”
I only hear about family things when I specifically ask — via text. Phone call? Forget it. Email? Dead silence. Text messages are the only line of communication that net any response. Ok, once in a while two of my brothers and I do group phone calls. Not often though.
My birth and step family pod are going through a thing with our parents now. I have very little if anything to do with the day-to-day, week-to-week to do with my mom or stepdad.
My mom and stepdad came together 32 years ago after the early deaths of both their spouses. My youngest brother and my stepdad’s youngest son were bffs long before we all lost a parent.
It was suggested that my not-yet-stepdad go have coffee with my recently widowed-and-still-in-shock mom. They were both lonely, they lived in a really small town; pickings were slim.
