I had a pretty fucked up childhood and hadn’t spoken to most of my family since 12-13 aside from funerals. My wife got an invite to the family Christmas party of Facebook and decided it would be good to go. The night before my mom called and told me that one of my uncles was trying find my other uncle so he could kill him, which is pretty par for the course.
We go to this Christmas party, I’m nervous and playing out all the ways it could go horribly wrong. What do you know, no one is drunk, there’s games for the kids, almost everyone there got gifts for my son and we even got gifts for our second on the way. Not a single altercation that I saw, not even a casual “fuck you”. All of the alcoholic, mentally ill, rage filled relatives that I remember are now old, properly medicated and mostly sober.
I felt like I was in the twilight zone. My wife came up to me at one point and said everyone’s so nice especially that guy and I had to tell her he once beat the shit out of me with a bat, breaking my leg and cut my shoes up with a knife all because I left them in the middle of the floor and he tripped over them.
It was absolutely wild but not in the way I thought it would be.
Wow, sorry you went through that as a kid. I’ve experienced something similar where someone I know had mellowed out with age, but it’s hard to just left their prior bad behavior be bygones, even though I don’t fight or actively hold any grudges lol
You do not need to be a victim of your environment. Choose who you want to be, and be that person. Don’t give dysfunctional people power over you by letting them shape who you become. Good luck, we’re all counting on you.
I had a pretty fucked up childhood and hadn’t spoken to most of my family since 12-13 aside from funerals. My wife got an invite to the family Christmas party of Facebook and decided it would be good to go. The night before my mom called and told me that one of my uncles was trying find my other uncle so he could kill him, which is pretty par for the course.
We go to this Christmas party, I’m nervous and playing out all the ways it could go horribly wrong. What do you know, no one is drunk, there’s games for the kids, almost everyone there got gifts for my son and we even got gifts for our second on the way. Not a single altercation that I saw, not even a casual “fuck you”. All of the alcoholic, mentally ill, rage filled relatives that I remember are now old, properly medicated and mostly sober.
I felt like I was in the twilight zone. My wife came up to me at one point and said everyone’s so nice especially that guy and I had to tell her he once beat the shit out of me with a bat, breaking my leg and cut my shoes up with a knife all because I left them in the middle of the floor and he tripped over them.
It was absolutely wild but not in the way I thought it would be.
Wow, sorry you went through that as a kid. I’ve experienced something similar where someone I know had mellowed out with age, but it’s hard to just left their prior bad behavior be bygones, even though I don’t fight or actively hold any grudges lol
Give me some hope for me at least, maybe I’ll turn out decent 😔
You do not need to be a victim of your environment. Choose who you want to be, and be that person. Don’t give dysfunctional people power over you by letting them shape who you become. Good luck, we’re all counting on you.