  I talked to my dad the other day. Groundbreaking experience, to me, because he did a lot of talking about things i don't hear about from him usually. He went on about my little brother and his trouble, and my little sister's cognitive disorder and the trouble they have with school (ongoing). Now, i was a rotten teenager at times, but he says i had nothing on my brother, whos problems have become expensive in the legal sense. I waited to get tossed in jail until after high school. Don't get me wrong, i love my little bro (going to be 18) and my little sis (going on 16, i think), but it felt GOOD to hear i wasn't so rotten after all.
Of course, my stepmom would never admit that, but we never got along anyway and i don't talk to her anymore because she just pisses me off so much. Oh... dad & father are used in this blog to describe two different people. So let me splain my family real quick, with names so no one gets lost. Fred- biodad, my father. Suzanne - Fred's wife Alex - Fred's daughter (my half sister- she's 9) Suzanne also has two other daughters by another marriage, and i can't remember their names, because i rarely hear about them. Brian - my stepdad. My Dad. Liz- Brian's wife. Sort of a stepmom, but i was never able to even get that close to her.
She's just kinda my Dad's now ex-wife. Robert - my "little" brother. Adopted into the family at about a year old, i think. He's 18. He looks like a linebacker Ashley - my little sister. Also adopted, probably at about a year old, too. maybe younger. She's about 16. Dorothy - my Mommy. But anyway, i guess my mom had called my Dad to ask for a referral for a certain kind of lawyer, and he laughed (to me) and said, "I know a criminal lawyer, an education lawyer and a divorce lawyer, and i've seen them all in the past week, but i don't know any of the kind she needs".
So, that's where my Dad is at right now. Much upheaval constantly happening amongst my family members. But what family doesn't have that? If yours doesn't, you really don't know how lucky you are. 
