More Family Time

Earlier today, I had gone to visit a friend and part of the conversation we had was him telling me of his plans to go visit his uncle soon and stay there for a few days before coming back. When he said that, I found myself wishing it was me because I've always wanted to go somewhere to go relax and reset for a few days but unfortunately, I haven't really built any form of relationship with my aunties and uncles that stay around, so I have no where to go.

And I know that at this age, not having a good relationship with them is my fault, but I've also mentioned it here countless times how my dad didn't help matters either, so rather than repeat all that again, today, I will be telling you guys the few things I will be doing differently when I eventually have a family of my own. These are things, mistakes I learnt from myself and how I was raised that I will make sure doesn't get passed down to my kids.

_{photo by Brett Jordan}

The first one would be family time. You see, I never really got to spend anytime with my dad or mom siblings ever. My parents lived a private life (not entirely private but they were far away from everyone else), and yes their siblings would visit every now and then but we all never really got the chance to sit together as a family as most of their visits only lasted for some few hours.

So if there's one thing I'm going to make sure I do, it is for I and my siblings to always make time for we all to gather in the same place, for some days, bonding, playing games and doing everything family do together. That way, everyone gets to be friends with one another and there's no awkward silence or behavior when we meet somewhere that isn't home.

Another thing I would do is most likely to send my kids to go spend the weekends every now and then with my other siblings, or they send their kids over to my place. Again, the goal is to bond and make these kids understand that we're all one family and that they could always come to me whenever they want.

The reason why that is very important to me is because personally, I've found myself in a lot of tight corners during the years, but I would always keep it to myself or only tell my siblings about it. And if it just so happens that they can't help with the problem, I always try to handle it myself and sometimes I don't handle it too well.

I've always lived like that until recently when my aunt heard about it and she had called and offered to help, and by the time she was done helping, I found myself regretting not coming to her sooner because she made everything look so easy.

It made me realize the many things I've been missing, the love, care and support that they all could offer me but I've been shying away from. That, is something I wouldn't want my kids or that of my siblings to experience. I would want them to know that we're here for them and I would want them to feel confident enough to walk up to us anytime and open up.