You Don’t Have to Love Your Family

That’s just what you’ve been taught.

Our culture has brainwashed us all to worship at the altar of family kinship. Why? No innate reason exists for loving your family, or even liking them, except for genetics. And that’s a shitty reason.

Mainstream media bombards us with images of happy families, traditional or otherwise. We’re taught that we have nothing without our clan. If you don’t spend every Christmas with your extended relatives, then you must be a crippled alcoholic, popping Vicodin until the holidays end so you can go back to work. Wrong. Some of us just don’t feel anything toward our families, one way or the other. With mine, the good cancels out the bad. That should be okay.

This friend of mine, her entire family pitched in and bought her a wedding dress last Christmas. The problem? She’s not engaged. I mean, she had been. The family all knew her fiance, and blamed the relationship’s failure on her. Her mom said, “We just thought we might as well give you some motivation.” My friend is great, practically my sister. When she told me, she cried a little. But then we realized that it was typical behavior for her family. No surprise here. My friend was hurt because she thought her family was supposed to love her. When you realize that maybe your family doesn’t love you, then a light opens. You no longer…