"Breakdown of the family" has been a buzzphrase in recent history.

It's not an original thought that this started with the breakdown of "extended" village.

From the stoops of Brooklyn, the Main Streets of Middle America, plains of Mongolia, Reservations of Arizona.......etc....

Has there been certain someone(s) who have stepped in for you?
....whether it be kickin yo butt when you needed it, or just taken up the slack? (a favorite aunt/uncle/grandparent/etc. or perhaps not even related)?

Nope,

My family loves me, but I have pretty much been on my own as far as supporting myself since I left home. I have no idea how often I have heard, "suck it up and drive on."

I discovered the hard way that the saying I liked in the 80s is true.

"Friends are like parachutes. If they aren't there when you really need them, chances are you won't need them again."

Think you could say that is true for family as well.

You're a poet.rebecca

Hehehe...would have been my name (Rebecca)...are you my conscience?
*extended smile* Thanks!

Maybe.

same Finite-ness (a word?)

It takes a village to raise a child...and this village is our 'family'...my kids have many fathers, many mothers, many aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers...'family of the village, and none blood ties)

They've learnt to love and be loved by so many people who have shared their childhoods, stood beside them through the rough patches, and applaud them in their successes.

As my eldest son and his partner, prepares for imminent parenthood, of a daughter (we learnt today!!!)...a whole village is doing a happy dance...all with a vested interest in this new little person.

We extend around the world...Rhi used to spend hours playing brat dolls (type thing), with Inanna, (Alex's youngest) on Skype...one little girl in Australia, the other in Amsterdam...


we don't have blood boundaries...we have heart ones.