Do you have any estranged family members?

[Squatch]

Like brothers or sisters you don't talk to or haven't spoken with in years?

[Squatch]

1. Haven't spoken with my

severly alcoholic brother in over 3 years.

[supernova]

2. Haven't spoken to my brother in a year

Him and I aren't the problem. I love him dearly.

But I feel compelled to stay away from my abusive sister-in-law. I just can stand to see her treat him so badly. And being around her feels like having the lifeforce sucked out of me. She's so demanding and controlling that my instinct is always to stay away.

I really don't know what to do about this situation. I don't like being estranged from my brother, but I really don't like my SiL.

[Lars39]

3. I've got one of those sil, too.

She is so off the wall that he now views women thru her behavior.
Not sure he has an original thought left in his head. :(

[supernova]

10. Oh dear Lars, I'm so sorry

:hug:

Yeah, my brother has beome very right wing.... Not sure if that would have happened anyway or not. Our mother was very Democratic (a teacher). But I hear you about "not an original thought in his head." At one point I thought his personality was disappearing.

The other thing that bugs me is I can never spend time alone w/ him w/o her in tow. She always has to be there; always has to be the center of attention. Which again, I feel compelled to run away from.

I should add that I bring my own baggage to the situation. I was married to a guy for nine years that was also emotionally abusive. So I have even less patience than the small amount I otherwise would for this situation. :-( I just can't put myself in the presence of that behaviour again.

[Lars39]

20. Thanks, supernovea.

:hug: Our sil sound like clones.
Her running joke to my parents was,"You mean you have other children?". :eyes:
It's very unhealthy mentally to be around someone like that,imo.
Avoidance is my coping survival tool also.
Took me years to realize how her behavior had warped the family dynamic,
and to realize that I've got to put my mental health first.

I keep waiting for him to make contact. I don't think it's going to happen.

:hug:

[fight4my3sons]

4. We haven't been in contact with my husband's family

for three years.

[Divameow77]

5. My MIL & FIL can both

kiss my ass, I'm pretty sure my husband feels the same.

[LostinVA]

6. Grandparents -- too long to get into

Sorry, just because they're in their 80's doesn't mean they aren't still evil...

[bertha katzenengel]

7. Other - yes, but it's not a matter of "he can kiss my ass" -

we (my dad and I) talk a few times a year. It's just, we don't know each other. Specifically, he's quite liberal socially but he's also a fundamentalist christian, and he doesn't like having a lesbian for a daughter (not to mention three atheist daughters).

[hippiechick]

8. I've got siblings who don't even know I live in Indiana ...

.... and I've been here for 6 years.

[LeftyMom]

9. My aunt ony my mother's side is no longer part of the family.

She stole a whole lot of money and a van from my Dad while pretending to help him.

[Joey Liberal]

11. My family and I talk, but

I haven't seen them in almost 8 years. They expect me to travel to them (which I have many times in the past) but they will not travel to see me.

[djeseru]

12. Yes, I'm the estranged one.

Ever since my father was killed 16 years ago, I just didn't want to bother with the false & fake family anymore. A whole boatload of the selfish...

I may talk to my mom once or twice a year though. It's hard considering how hateful she is towards what I consider important.

[Saphire]

13. yes, the in-laws..they can kiss my ass.

[Shell Beau]

14. Nope, I am close to all of my family!

Family is very very important!

[politicat]

15. My uncle doesn't want anything to do with us....

We had issues with his thefts, his drug addictions, and his violence, but we never cut him out.

We just wanted him to get healthy.

I don't talk to my father. There's just nothing left to say.

[nini]

16. One of my brothers.

hisssssssss

[malta blue]

17. I haven't spoken to my one time favorite aunt in over 4

years. When my grandmother passed away, she took all of her jewelry back to CA, and then refused to come to the burial in the Domincan Republic. My mom and I went to the DR, and she did everything in her power to prevent her own mother's funeral from taking place. I hear she is terminally ill now.

[FuzzySlippers]

18. Yes. They are all extremely odd.

Oh. You said e-strange. Never mind.

[RockaFowler]

19. I talk to my family, but . . .

My husband and his sister do not talk at all. As a matter of fact, she's the black sheep of the family

[TK421]

21. I severed ties with my brothers on my Dad's side...haven't spoken

to or seen them in maybe four years.

[inanna]

22. Had a recent fallout with my brother

over what else? Politics!

But my folks rang me up saying that brother was going through a rough time, marriage troubles and now, job troubles. So I called him up last night and things are better now.

Our family is like that. We fight. A lot.

[Bzzzz]

23. Yeah...

me.

[0007]

24. What can ya say, when you're son is a born again

and listens to Rush Limbaugh? He was raised to know better, but bought into a bunch of crap. Daughter in law sez I'm going to hell.

Fuck it!

edited: To add my brother turned into a mormon......and my wife ran off with a Jehovah Witness years ago, now they're Catholics.

What's left....

[eeyore]

25. My oldest brother recently spent time in prison, and we don't talk....

He has always been in a lot of trouble: very intelligent, but really fucked up. He has had substance abuse issues for decades, and it finally came down on him a few years ago when he paralyzed a 19 year old woman in a head on drunk driving accident.

He has always been able to get out of any trouble that he got himself into, and was shocked when he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for this offense. I have a very hard time dealing with the way he reacted to his sentence, like it was some sort of injustice. Basically, a lifetime of thinking he was too smart to get busted caught up with him.

Time will tell, he is now out of prison and on parole, but we really haven't spoken much since he got out. I can't stand the pain he has caused my parents, and I find it really hard to be anything but cordial with him.

:-(

[liberalitch]

26. My whole family is kinda eh-strange.....

thank you chico marx

[RevCheesehead]

27. Just a Freeper SIL.

As long as we don't talk politics or current events, we're fine.

[Bonhomme Richard]

28. No. We all get along great and really enjoy each others company.

Lucky I guess.

[Beausoir]

29. I never thought it would happen to us...

my sister divorced herself from my brothers and me after the death of my mother.

It was all over some cheap china and crystal.

My parents would be mortified.

[Fountain79]

30. My family is dysfuntional...

but I love them to death. They are my anchor in this crazy world. However, one of my relatives committed the unforgivable sin, and he has ceased to be my family.

[fudge stripe cookays]

31. OH yeah.

My brother decided he didn't need to come to my wedding. Made some bullshit excuse about "having" to work.

He didn't HAVE to work, he CHOSE to work. He doesn't understand the concept of "family", and how most bosses understand that type of stuff.

When he e-mailed me and told me, I told him I hoped he got a big fat fucking promotion. He has never met my husband, and we've now been married for 5 years. I haven't spoken to him since then either.

My mother is a psychopathic control freak. I have as little to do with her as possible. Some of you here know she's threatened to kill me before. That bitch is going to rot in a nursing home somewhere, and I won't feel a thing about it.

fsc

[Giant Robot]

32. Mainly my uncle

I haven't spoken with him in 25 years. He got very angry with my mom and their parents over something about how much money or help the grandparents gave my parents when they first got married. He felt screwed over in some deal and became angry and bitter, and from what I understand, threatening. He started talking to us again after my grandfather passed away. I think I said hello to him at the funeral, but that was it. I probably should be more forgiving, but I figure if he is that petty and mean spirited, why bother. And he lives 800 miles away.

I don't speak with my sister-in-law unless I have to. She totally flipped out on me when my sainted father passed away. She said, two days after he died mind you, that "they had their own lives to get back to" and were not going to help sort out his affairs any more than they did. I promptly told her to fuck off. At the funeral a couple days later, my brother tried to make amends, saying things had gotten out of hand, etc. I have no problem with him and love him to death, but I felt like he was fishing for an apology from me to, and that was not happening. So since then, I have not really made any effort to speak to her unless necessary. Probably not the time of year to be confessing this, but they are who I am and my sins.