Family...What a Joy?

Our daugher, and her husband, are going to be heading back to the States (from Germany) soon. He is leaving the military on a medical discharge (lets all give a big cheer for Operation Iraqi Freedom!) This is, quite naturally, an extremely stressful situation for them. They need all the support, emotional and otherwise, from family that they can get. We're doing everything we can.

Then there's my parents...

For our entire 23+ years together, I can think of few occasions when my parents were appropriately supportive when they really should have been. Unless we were doing what my mother wanted us to do. Its no different for our daughter. And my mother uses it as an opportunity to launch yet another passive-aggressive attack on Gina and I. Then she wonders why no one is rushing to embrace her. I'm so tired of my mother's toxic manipulations. Just...tired.

I'll be the first to admit I haven't been a perfect and devoted son, but I am the product of my upbringing. Good and bad.

I remember my grandmother. She was practically the archetypal grandmother to her grandchildren. She was a good mother-in-law. She lived in my parents' home for much of my childhood. Was supportive. Minded her own business. Behaved herself. Despite having had a pretty hard time of raising her three children with a rather undependable husband. I've even heard my parents talk about how easy she was. How did my mother's apple fall so freakin' far from the tree?

What a waste.