During the months of May and June, for those of us who still have parents living, we celebrate mothers’ and fathers’ day.During these months we share family gatherings. In talking to families it’s interesting to hear our perceptions of ourselves. The reality is that there is no normal family. Even in my own family with six children, two already deceased, we could not be considered normal. My oldest brother, Tom, was from my mother’s first marriage. Her husband passed away from leukemia and my mother remarried my father. The first time I remember meeting Tom was when I was five years old. We were born 17 years apart and he had left after high school to join the marines. During our lifetime we were more like acquaintances than brother and sister because we did not grow up in the same house at the same time. In any family a factor of distance and time greatly influences how we perceive our family relationships. What is your experience of your relationships with your siblings and how you each differently perceive the relationships with your parents?
