Stranger Than Fiction

I was talking to my sister a few days ago. Nothing out of the ordinary, just conversing about our family and its tendency to be dysfunctional. Though I don't care to go into the details, it was interesting to note what she said about my parents. "Yeah, I feel like I don't really know them. And Daddy, he's kind of a stranger to me." I was somewhat taken aback by not only how forward she was about saying this, but also by the amount of truth in that statement. I'm not sure if I completely know my father either. And I have noticed a similar trend when I ask my friends about their own parental relationships. Not that it's impossible for people from two parent homes to not know their parents, but it seems outlandish to say the least. Even with all the time that we could have spent together; I, my sister, and my brother all had separate experiences growing up in the same Middle American home. What's more, we each shared very little with one another, but all come up with similar disconnections from our parents. And the same can be said about an ex-girlfriend of mine. She's one of my sister's friends and until we had this conversation I had always thought her mother was a single parent. I have picked this woman up for multiple dates and dropped her off, back in her bed after she's passed out drunk and not once have I seen her father. I had no idea that this man has been there the whole time. It's just amazing that somehow we can all live in allegedly "normal", suburban homes and be just as screwed up, isolated, or otherwise dysfunctional as those who go without a parent in the home. I watch Malcolm in the Middle (tv show with my nickname) and am bewildered by how uncanny the resemblance is to my own family. Family fights. Delinquent older siblings. Reserved younger siblings with just as many issues. And a main character who continues to try to make sense of it all. I guess I am living in a house full of strangers and I'm not even sure how to rectify it, if I can at all. Because clearly, I feel more comfortable telling these issues to a computer screen than people downstairs. Oh well. It's sad, but it's the damn truth.

Stranger In My House - Tamia