To think that families are hard work?

[malificent7]

Im talking everyone from kids to distant relatives!

Dont get me wrong... i love my family but omg. The competetiveness, pettyness, overbearing faffing drivesme nut!

My late mum had mh issues and was abusive and damily dynamics are fucked!

My dad has a new dp and the happy couple and their family are hard work with dd snd i sometimes scapegoated!

The comparison of kids drives me nuts!

Dd 9 is Lovely but i find motherhood hard work. I wouldnt be without her though!

Do i sound like a miserable old git? I am a miserable old git. Im a loner at heart and i prefer animals to people!

I am just a loner at heart and i find the complicated dynamics hard.

I dont buy all this sugar coated happy family nonsense on facebook. Im not miserable... just exhausted by it! Anyone else?

Amen to that! Not my own little family unit (DH and DD are fabulous) but DM, DF (when he was alive), DSis + DBIL, DB + DSIL are all bloody nightmares in various different ways. Seriously dysfunctional. While I love them all except DBIL, what a tosser, I so can't be arsed with their drama, selfishness, tactlessness, over-sensitivity etc etc. We rarely speak, tbh, which is fine by me!

I've said this before: to me, the fact that something is hard work isn't necessarily some kind of measure that it is somehow wrong or not worthwhile. Obviously, if it grinds you down and makes you unhappy or ill it is. But a challenge- I like climbing mountains. So the fact that extended family is rather harder work than just hanging out with dh is neither here nor there as far as I am concerned: it's just two different parts of life. Like hill walking or lazing in the garden, both good in their own way.