I'm not sure what I can and cannot write in this post because I'm not totally sure which members of my massively large family actually read this blog. But...I can say that I'm pretty sure there's not going to be a family reunion anytime soon.
Ok...so here's the breakdown of my massive family. Mom has 5 siblings. Bio-dad has 7 (I think...I always forget some on that side but I don't know very many of them very well *caveat:I do know some who are just freaking awesome and I wish I could see more). Step-dad has 8...or 9...not sure of the total there either. Needless to say, it's a little overwhelming. Especially when compared with my husband who has a total of 7 people in his family. Yup, seven.
Growing up, when I referred to "my family" it was my mom's side. Step-dad and bio-dad both came into the picture later in my teens. That said, my mom's side of the family is MORE than enough. They're crazy. All of them. Each in their own way. And they're splintered all over the country and the socio-economic spectrum. It's amazing to me to see how very different all my mother's siblings are from one another and tonight some of those differences manifested themselves in a comment war on a facebook pic...I know, classy. I won't bore you with the specifics but for me, it was kind of like a microcosm of all our family dynamics in one place...certain people abstained from commenting...others went all out with caps...it was surprisingly fascinating for me.
The song, Stuck in the Middle With You, went through my mind many times because as it happens, our little family is in the middle...I'm the only one who grew up with the family from up north but maintained a connection with all the families down south. And now, we live almost equidistant from all three factions. We are literally stuck in the middle. I'm not normally one to abstain from stating my opinion (shocking, I know) but in tonight's comment war...which I think will go down in history as the great facebook comment war of 2011...I bit my tongue...or rather held my fingers back. I tried a couple of times to defuse it but you know when someone says or types something that's going to trigger a whole lot more...yeah, there were a couple of those moments and after the second or third, I backed away leaving my only real comment on the issue.
"Damn."
Because sometimes, that's all that can be said and in the end, it's just a really big family with really big personalities and not much else in common.
Lol, Brianna... you're not alone. We had a family brawl last weekend, no kidding. Me, my sister, my brother in law, my hubs... and the kids! It was total Jerry Springer, lol. I think my neighbors thought we were nutso. It all started because of something that happened with the kids.
ReplyDeleteMy sister vehemently defends my nephew for EVERYTHING he does, and even though he starts the trouble he never takes the blame. It's all good now, but it was a showdown. I of course couldn't say anything on FB, but OOOOooooh, how I wanted to ;o)
XoXoXo!