I’ve never been much of a fan of the concept of a “traditional” family, perhaps because my own family was so different. My mom was my dad’s second wife; he’d had four children with his first wife that were all so much older I tended to think of them more as aunts and uncles than sisters and brothers.
My own parents then also divorced after having three children together: my two siblings and me. My dad remarried a third time and had one last son. My mom remarried as well and had two daughters, but then divorced again. She’s currently engaged to the man I generally think of as my stepfather.
That means that in total, I have two older half brothers, two older half sisters, my own brother and sister, a younger half brother and two younger half sisters. And that’s not including the stepsiblings. When trying recently to describe the origin of a book I received as a childhood git, I actually used the phrase, “my ex-step-grandma.” [Read more…]
