Blood is thicker than water.

Family is a right pain in the arse sometimes.
I mean, I've heard and seen more dramas arise from family situations than anything Underbelly writers can cook up.  


Money, for some reason, seems to be the driving factor for rifts between family members.  Blood means nothing if someone feels cheated out of a few bucks.


Many moons ago, my family emigrated to Australia.  We arrived to no family, not speaking the language and my parents set about carving out a life for us in this new strange land.  As a four year old, 


I can still remember my mother crying in her room, the loneliness eating at her while she coped with three young children on her own as my father worked two jobs to support us and give us a better life.


I am in awe of their bravery, of making such a massive decision to leave all and everyone they knew to try for a better life.  I don't know if I'd have done the same had I been in their shoes.


Some years later, my fathers brother emigrated with his family and we had cousins and a support system that we'd not had for a while.  And then the wheels fall off.


Despite being family, we are all individual people with our own thoughts and opinions and sometimes they just don't mix.  Personalities drive wedges, create problems and fracture relationships that sometimes can be insurmountable.


My father is a pushover and sees the good in everyone, even when it's not there.  My mum is prickly and a ball breaker who always always speaks her mind.  Tact is not one of her strengths.  So yes, she can rub people up the wrong way.


For many years, we were estranged from my cousins.  I guess when they absconded with my dad's car and forgot to say buh bye, it was only going to end one way.  Badly.  I still remember getting calls from creditors chasing them for bad debt.  That's a problem when you have an unusual surname...  you always get everyone's calls.


Fast forward a decade or so and they reached out again.  And of course, my father being so generous of spirit, welcomes them back with open arms.  By this stage, my father's sister had also made the move to Australia and jumped on the taking advantage bandwagon.  Needless to say, my mother was less than impressed.  They fought over family for years, and still do.


As much as it pains me to say this, I am on my mother's side in this one.  It boils my blood no end.  It drives me fucking insane that the only time we hear from them is when they need something.  Is it that fucking hard to pick up the phone and say, hi, how are you doing?  Apparently it is.


That's the thing about family.  The perceived notion of having to work at a relationship is null and void because blood is blood.  My father is regarded as the sensible, reliable one in the family.  He's made a comfortable life for our family and there is a line of 'family' that think it's their right to a bit of that life.  Family sticks together.


Not always.  Quite frankly there are about 500 people I'd put ahead of my blood relations.  I'm onto you.  Don't think I'm going to allow this shit to continue.  The gravy train is coming into the station and the ride is almost over.