Your "family" dyanmic is horrifying to me. I really don't know that I'd actually make the effort that you did, but then again, it's harder to break out of that dynamic than people might think. Especially people who are on the outside. I spent years trying to break my mom of the habit she has of guilting me into spending time with her, but after all this time I guess I've just accepted that this is the way things are.

It doesn't make it okay, but what can we do?