The family you grew up in...

[Danielle]

Tell us about the family you were born/adopted/other into.

Do you have siblings, 2 parents, a single parent? Did you have extended family living with or very near to you? Tell us something that you feel made your family unique :D.

[Lori]

I grew up with my mom and dad and my younger sister. I'm not really sure what made us unique. My father was always much more friendly and involved and just around more than most of my friends' fathers, so I was very lucky in that way.

[Mally's Mom]

I lived with my mom, my dad, and my little brother. There is nothing to "unique" about us. We did (they still do)live next door to my dad's twin brother and his family, and a long time ago my other uncle lived on the other side of us with his family. So we all lived next door to each other (granted they live out in the country on farms, so to live near each other is a new meaning, it was usually 1 to 3 acres of land in between us) but it was fun having my cousins for neighbors, we played all the time together and we are still close because of it. The rest of our family lived in town which was only 10 mins away so that was nice.

[Danielle]

I grew up in a family with a mother, father and little sister and my grandmother also lived with us for most of my childhood. I wouldn't say we were all that unique either... except for the fact that my grandmother was there. We were a pretty average lower-middle class family.

[Beka]

I had a really happy childhood growing up.

I came from the typical nuclear family- except i we were both girls! My mother was a sahm when i was young, my dad worked (and till does) in engineering, I have 1 older sister who is 3 years my senior, she marries next year and i am her bridesmaid! We had a dog named Copper (from when i was 4 til i was 21- my eldest daughter took her first steps for him!) a multitude of other pets over the years from zebra finches to crayfish! I had a very sheltered, protected up bringing and looking back was raised too niavely but i can't ever knock the fact I was a very happy child.

I've always been "second" on terms of attentions as my sister is quite emotionally demanding but she'd be boring if she wasn't, I am seen as the "strong" one, the survivor, which to be honest can suck at times but i guess everyone fills a role.

Growing up my maternal grandmother was extremely involved with our family, my mom was an only child and my maternal grandfather had died when my sister was 1, leaving my gran a widow. Granny was always there, granny was the one we went to when mom shouted at us, Granny came on holiday with us, we went shopping with her, she came to tea every week, she bought us the treats my parents couldn't afford- she even bought a chocolate bar for the dog each saturday. Granny was all you dream about in a grandparent- she was the first to get down on the floor and play with us at christmas and the last person to say no when things really mattered. She came to all my school plays and fayres, even when my parents couldn't. My dad worked long hours so my gran often filled the void left by that. When i was 14 my granny had a series of severe strokes, my sister lived away from home, my dad had 3 large businesses to run and so i stepped into the role of carer with my mom- my gran died December 9th 1995 when i was 16.5- during all the time she was ill i only missed 7 days of visiting with her, I spood fed her, i helped her learn to walk again- not many people can say they taught the person who taught them to walk to walk again but i can. She truly did mean the world to me.

We were broke for most of my childhood, and it was fun! We would do things like get in the car and go camp at the coast because we were running from debt collectors LOL Then when i was 8 my dad started what turned out to be 3 very sucessful businesses and work become more important than us, holidays were more expensive but we lost all the freedom we had when we were broke. It was 2 weeks of expensive resorts and a stressed father- i hated it. When i was 19 he lost everything- from his house & car right down to his pocket change- he had a break down and spent alot of time with me and my then infant Chase, he relearnt what family was again and he's a fantastic grandad (he takes my kids to school somedays- attends art days etc)

I grew up in a fantastic family... the now often do try and manipulate and control me emotionally blackmailing at times but that still doesn't change the fact i had an awesome childhood.

[Kristen]

I grew up with my mom and my dad and my sibilings(one older brother, one younger sister, and one younger brother).

Growing up, I thought my family was the norm, but the more I see of other families, the more I see that we were not the norm. The number of unhappy families out there astounds me, and makes me very grateful to have been born into my family. My parents' marriage is solid and happy, and they were good parents to us...not too soft, and not too hard, and they spent lots and lots of TIME with us.

My parents are both very stable people too, so that helped my childhood a lot. Unstable people often make not-so-good parents, at least from what I've seen. Both my sil's come from homes where their dads were unkind and unfair and it is sad to see how it has affected them. and same for my own husband.
The things his dad said to him affect him to this day(just last Saturday, he was doing something and it wasn't going well and he said, "It's just like my dad said...I'm no good at anything.") :( By the grace of God, I will NOT saddle my kids with that kind of baggage.

My parents are not without fault, of course, but I feel like I have avoided a lot of difficult issues in my adulthood because of the way I was raised.

[ColleenC]

I had a very happy childhood. I was raised with my brother who is 5 years younger than me and my sister who is 2.5 years older. We didn't have alot of money BUT my parents made sure that we had everything we needed and more. *Sigh* I wish I could be a kid again LOL

[Danielle]

I'm gad to hear about so many happy childhoods :D. Just goes to show money isn't really all that important for a child's happiness!

[Mary]

We weren't particularly unique. I lived with my parents. My dad has two older kids (11 and 10 years older than I, respectively). The girl never (literally never) visited us and we didn't visit her. The boy lived with us on and off up till I was 7 or 8. He'd get in trouble and be sent back home to his mother (four hours away or so) and then after a while be sent back to us. So he wasn't around much. I'm my mom's only child and was essentially raised as an only. My dad and I didn't get along from basically day one, it seems, and my mom and I got along but she was too easy on me. :)

[Shana]

I grew up as the daughter of a pastor and my mom also just happens to be an ordained minister as well :D

They are Wes & Ruth.

I have 2 sisters, and one brother.

Marie is 20 months younger than me -- she is 38.

Erik is 36.

Heather is 34.

I had a pretty good, and very happy childhood :)

[wendygrace]

I lived with my my parents, who were married and am the oldest of four girls. My next sis is 4 yrs 9 months younger than me, then the next one is 4 yrs 9 months younger than her and the baby is only 18 months younger than her. We used to tease my mother that we knew what she was doing on our fourth bdays! LOL

Unique. Well, we'd be considered an "immigrant" family as I am first generation American. My parents became citizens at some point. We also speak Spanish.

We have no bio family in the US but many of our parent's friends becamse "aunts and uncles and grandparents".

[Brooke]

I have 3 siblings, a mom, a dad and a stepmom.

Lived with my Mom, Dad and older sister (Joanne, 4 years older) until they divorced when I was 5. My Dad moved out.

When I was 6, he remarried my stepmom (Maureen). When I was 10, they had my half-brother, AJ and then two years later came Tommy.

In all, I had a pretty good childhood growing up. I think it was way better to have my parents divorced than together considering their extremely toxic relationship. My dad and stepmom have a pretty good marriage and the 4 kids (Joanne - 33, Brooke - 29, AJ - 19 & Tommy - 17) are all close and get along together well.

We also have an extended family that we're close with. When I was younger, until about 6 years ago, we were extremely close with my mother's side of the family. She has 7 brothers and sisters and I have about 25 cousins from all that. We dont' speak with any of them anymore due to the fact they tried to beat up my mom at my Great-Grandma's funeral. They're total white trash. We now only speak to my mom's twin, her husband, their three girls and then one of them has a son. I am close to them like they are my sisters.

On my Dad's side, he has 1 brother, 1 sister and 2 half-sisters. The two half sisters live in Colorado so we dont' see them often. His brother has remarried and my two cousins are 22 and 25. I'm pretty close to the 22 year old. His other sister has two kids, one my age and one 2 years older. There was another fallout with the sister and her husband so we don't speak with them anymore.

[Jo]

I grew up with my parents and one brother. My brother and I are adopted. I love my parents dearly but we are very very very different.

I have always gotten along great with my Dad. Intellectually, we share the same interests, which are politics, the law, and history. We didn't share a love of sports though. He tried to enjoy my games but he would have been much happier reading a good newspaper. He has never been exactly what I would call athletically inclined.

My mom and I are a different story. It took many many years to heal from our differences. She is wonderful woman but she has never understood me and I am not sure she does now. At least now, we can enjoy each other's company and even joke about the past. She has reached the point where she has apologized for certain things and that was a huge step for us.

[kcmomma]

I grew up with my mom and dad and a younger sister (2 yr 8mo younger). My great aunt lives in the family homestead next door to my parents. Her sister, my great aunt Kate lived 2 doors and 1/4 a mile down the road from her. My grandmother lives about a mile down the road and a brother lived about a mile from my parents the other way down the road. We were basically related to everyone in our small country church, and those we weren't related to were related to each other as part of the other family that came to church. My mom stayed home with us until my sister went to 3rd grade, and then she only worked 4 half days a week. Dad worked 2 jobs and wasn't home much when we were little, but once we got to middle school/high school and my mom started working 3 full days and 2 half a week, he only worked one. He was our percussion instructor for band (both my sister and I played the drums in band) and Mom worked in the band's concession stands and was in charge of our annual fruit sales. My parents only missed ONE of my high school football games, and NONE of my sister's.

I wasn't really happy about growing up in the middle of no-where as a child, but SURE am glad about it now.

[Lisa]

I had both parents at home and am #6 of 7 kids. There are 2 boys and 5 girls. I suppose there are a few things that make us unique. Both my parents worked full time jobs. My father worked in higher education and is a deacon in the catholic church. My mother worked for years as a paramedic RN. You should have heard the rumors in our neighborhood about my mom spending 24 hrs at a time at work with a male partner LOL. She then got a RN job in higher education as well. All 7 of us kids are college graduates as well as both parents. Both my mothers parents were college grads as well.

ummmmm not much else really LOL

[giana]

I grew up in a big city...20 million inhabitants.I lived with my aunt Lili and attended a cathoilic school.I was an only child ans didnt have any cousins untill I was 11 so I grew up among adults.Lili is my moms older sister and she is divorced with no kids but me...she used to design airplanes back then and was home only at night so my spare time was spent with my grandma or doing extra curricular classes...french,violin,art...you name it I did it.
My grandfather and I always read together and it was fun because he always treated me like a person not like a kid.Our family was a family of immigrants so of course we had to deal with all the stereotypes immigrants face.I had a nice childhood other than my mom issues.I cannot say that I missed having other children around because I never had and I often prefered older people company anyway...Id rather spend an afternoon with Lili at the museum than going play with my school friends.Spending large amounts of time with my grandparents made me learn how cool older people can be and to this day I love making friends with the elder...My dad worked at Arthur Andersen back then and traveled a lot but he was back every single weekend to be with me...that usually meant hours ice skating and a cold by monday...he has never been able to say no to me and hes the best dad one could have.I also loved summer camp and went every summer from age 8 to 17 and still have friends from that time.I guess we were different but I would never be born in another family.

[SarahJ]

Very normal upbringing here. I'm the youngest of three children, I have an older brother and sister. My sister is 6 years older, my brother 2.5 years older.
My parents have been married for 38 years, very solid relationship.
They emigrated to New Zealand from England in 1971, so we didn't have any family in New Zealand.
I missed having grandparents around, but also benefited from trips overseas from a very young age, which whetted my appetite for travel later on in life.

[Angelique]

One mum, one dad, and one big brother, 13 months older than me! We all get on pretty well. I'm a daddy's girl thru and thru, and my mum and I are too alike to become great friends, but I can count on her for anything. My brother and I are getting closer again now that he has kids too. Very boring!

[Danielle]

So nice to hear about everyone's childhoods, thanks for sharing :).

[Renita]

My parents were together for 20 years before calling it quits. They were never married though. LOL I have 2 older sisters and 1 older brother from my dad's first marriage. Then, I have 1 younger sister and 1 younger brother - the 3 of us are all 6 years apart. I am 29, my sister will be 23, my brother is 17. I am not that close to my dad, but my younger bro/sis definitely are.

We have a HUGE extended family and we are all very close, so I had good memories of family get togethers.