OR…more family shit.
Sunday, as you know, was Mothers Day. After recieving homage from my own children and husband, I generally took it easy for the rest of the day, taking my daughter to work and getting a phone call from my stepson were the most strenuous things I did. At 6:00 I called my mom, who lives about 1 hour away. My 3 siblings and their families were there. I didn’t know we were all supposed to go to mom’s today. No one told me, “Hey, we are all meeting at mom’s”. We usually don’t. So, after telling me who was there, mom says she will have to call me later. Later was Monday afternoon. And she proceeded to tell me just how wonderful it was that the 3 came, and little Thomas is just so cute, and Larry brought his 2 great dane puppies and his new extra expensive lawn mower, they all looked at the pictures from the 'rents recent trip to Hawaii etc, etc, etc.
Well, that bothered me. Not in a ranting crying way, but in a slightly disquieting way. And the more I thought about it, the more disquieted I became. I remembered other gatherings, where the 3 would say things to each other like “I’ll call you next week”, “Why don’t you come down and we will go shopping”, “Last week when I was at your house for dinner…” I try to include myself in these family conversations, but the room usually falls quiet when I enter. For the past couple of years, I began thinking of myself in terms of an only child. I have tried and tried to connect with these people I grew up with, but always fall short. I think, “it must be something about ME!” “It has to be something wrong with ME!” When I told my daughter that I had called G’ma and everyone was there, she just looked at me sadly and said “I’m sorry, Mom”. So, maybe it isn’t just me. It’s so hard to tell. My SO says that they have always treated me differently, but I try not to give to much credence to that notion, as he has no use for any of them.
So, Dopers, do I say fuck 'em all and continue thinking I am an only child, blow it off as just one of those things, or…what? And before you say I should try to talk more to the siblings, I have been trying that for years. And I get polite smiles and blank stares. For the record, I am 2nd of 4. 2 boys, 2 girls. And be gentle.