Such an insightful and, for me (of course), familiar meditation on the “group[s]” (“ok, famil[ies]“: wow, yeah, I know, I know) that we are born into and that, later on, we choose to construct on our own… (Incidentally, my Thanksgiving dinner was spent with my mother and her friend, at the Tennis Club in Palm Springs, shortly after they had placed my aunt into rehab… sigh, families…)
Am I reading correctly that your dad’s wife (and I love the warm, pig-latinish “othermom” for “stepmother”)–has a 12-year-old great-granddaughter??? That in itself is family to the max!
WW — I’ve thought about this post several times over the weekend but didn’t know what to say in response, in part b/c our stories are so very different (as much as I think of you as a spiritual sibling). I think my only bit of advice would be that no relationship really measures up to whatever ideal you had in mind before you entered it — and that’s part of the adventure.
I’d never heard the term taffy families before, it sorta fits. What do you think the best thing parents can do for their children after they split up?
Such an insightful and, for me (of course), familiar meditation on the “group[s]” (“ok, famil[ies]“: wow, yeah, I know, I know) that we are born into and that, later on, we choose to construct on our own… (Incidentally, my Thanksgiving dinner was spent with my mother and her friend, at the Tennis Club in Palm Springs, shortly after they had placed my aunt into rehab… sigh, families…)
Am I reading correctly that your dad’s wife (and I love the warm, pig-latinish “othermom” for “stepmother”)–has a 12-year-old great-granddaughter??? That in itself is family to the max!
great post, and ah yes all the family drama we can go through
WW — I’ve thought about this post several times over the weekend but didn’t know what to say in response, in part b/c our stories are so very different (as much as I think of you as a spiritual sibling). I think my only bit of advice would be that no relationship really measures up to whatever ideal you had in mind before you entered it — and that’s part of the adventure.