My dysfunctional family is my normal family. I chalk it up to strong personalities.
I have my Mom and Dad still alive. Dad struggles with the beginnings of Alzheimer's and Mom and I are estranged for 5 years but I still love her very much- it's those strong personalities that got in the way.
I have 8 siblings. 5 sisters, 3 brothers- 1 of which is deceased which let loose all the personalities of the remaining siblings. I speak to 1 sister, step lightly around the rest (nice way of saying there are some control freaks and extremely jealous ones) and not to the bros. as they are wimps and 1 is mental (I have told hubby to watch him- I fear for my life when he is around).
Our kids are the light of my life. Hubby and I have his, hers and ours. There are personality differences here, but I keep them in check. We have 3 boys- 29, 25 tomorrow, and 20. 4 girls- 34, 32, 27 and 27. They are not twins, just from 2 marriages. They have been together sine the girls were 2 and have been treated as blood siblings.
We have 4 grands- 2 boys, ages 3 and 2, and 2 girls, ages 2 and 6 weeks. We only have 1 grand living nearby but we keep in touch daily with the others. My goal this week is to get a swing set put together in time for the girls to visit next week.
I have 3 SILs, 1 DIL and 1 more next week- my 25 year old S gets married on the 18th to a pretty little princess.
Dogs- 2- a 12 year old pug named Crouton and a 4 year old Beagle named Trixie.