I’m from a big family – lots of aunts, uncles, cousins always around growing up and I’m the youngest cousin.
What this has meant as an adult is that by the time some milestone happens in my life, no one cares. I was expected to attend all of my cousins’ graduations, engagement parties, bridal showers, weddings, baby showers, kids’ birthday parties, kids’ graduations, and on and on.
By the time it was my turn, no one showed up. Only 2 of my aunts came to my polytechnic graduation and only about half of the family came to my wedding, and literally none of them came to my baby shower and they never acknowledged my kids’ birthdays.
My oldest just graduated from polytechnic, and not a single person acknowledged this.
Furthermore, this is after I have sent every single one of my nieces/nephews $100 for their graduations for the last 10 years, even when I was broke and it was a big hit for my finances (to be clear, money is not an issue for most of my relatives).
The latest is I heard from my mother that one of my cousins who migrated to Australia coming back with her family for a visit.
I dropped her a message to ask her to bring her two kids over for a swim sometime, we would love to see them (2 of our kids are the same age). Nothing. No response. Not even, “Thanks, but no thanks.” I start thinking maybe I have the wrong number, so my mom asks my aunt (her mom) who says, “Yeah, she said you had invited them.”
So she got the text and couldn’t even respond?
I get it. Everyone has moved into a different life period or is over the novelty of doing these things. They don’t seem to really care much about me or my family.
In my brain, I know this.
It’s been 15 years of these and I’m not a moron.
However, it really bothers me. Our family was so tight-knit, it was always family first, and it really hurts that it turns out it was family first when it was their turn, but now they can’t be bothered.
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