Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2002-09-19 11:27 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2002-09-19 11:27 pm
Votania's family
Great-Aunt has been having heart troubles lately. Votania went in the hospital around the same time Great-Aunt came out. Taking shifts, Grandma quipped on Monday at Votania's still woozy and delirious bedside.
Votania's family only comes through and functions as a family when there's some death or near-death experience going on. It's incredibly surreal. I'm not sure which would be worse, a family that didn't come together at all for anything, or a family that only comes together in emergencies, and falls apart the rest of the time.
I'm suspecting that the intermittent reinforcement family is the worst, because if your family is a complete nothing, then you'll get used to the idea fairly soon, and come to expect nothing from them. However, if your family functions part of the time, stops functioning, then is pulled together suddenly, functions for a while, and then stops again, you never know what part of the cycle they're going to be in, or when the next strengthening emergency is going to occur.
In cases like that, I tend to suspect the family structure as gaining strength from pain, not keeping strength in spite of pain.
Votania's family only comes through and functions as a family when there's some death or near-death experience going on. It's incredibly surreal. I'm not sure which would be worse, a family that didn't come together at all for anything, or a family that only comes together in emergencies, and falls apart the rest of the time.
I'm suspecting that the intermittent reinforcement family is the worst, because if your family is a complete nothing, then you'll get used to the idea fairly soon, and come to expect nothing from them. However, if your family functions part of the time, stops functioning, then is pulled together suddenly, functions for a while, and then stops again, you never know what part of the cycle they're going to be in, or when the next strengthening emergency is going to occur.
In cases like that, I tend to suspect the family structure as gaining strength from pain, not keeping strength in spite of pain.