What does family mean to me?

As part of the WRF2 project

I realised recently that I spend an incredible amount of time with my family. From an outside perspective, that would make sense; I live with my brother (and girlfriend) and my parents live just around the corner. Three of us work in the same place and the fourth is there practically every day anyway. Thinking about it like this, it makes sense that we see each other all the time. This is only a recent occurrence, I think. I lived in France for a year and throughout a lot of my degree I saw them very little. In September I’m off to Belfast – that means I’ll see them a lot less. Having said that, I doubt it’ll make much of a difference. My grandparents live in New Zealand and yet I still hear from them pretty frequently. The wonders of text messages, cheaper international phone calls, e-mail and VOIP means that we can keep in touch from far, far away.

So what does family mean to me? I guess it means love, security and warmth. It means having people around you. We’re a pretty close-knit family I reckon. Working together makes it difficult at times, but that’s pretty normal!

Family to me means whatever we decide to make it. It doesn’t matter to me that people think my parents shouldn’t have children, or even that they shouldn’t have a legally recognised relationship. Try telling me that my mums don’t deserve recognition for staying together thirty years, for raising four cats, two dogs, a pony, a horse, countless chickens, rabbits, fish and two children. They’ve done a damn good job. They’ve provided for us for the last 24 years of my life and I know they’ll give me the support I need whenever I ask for it – and even when I don’t.

I’ve got a little brother who I can only really describe as a character – I’d be surprised if he stood still for more than a year at any point in his life. While I love a bit of consistency, he gets twitchy and craves change.

We aren’t perfect, but I’m pretty sure none of us care. We love each other and that’s far more important than any stepping-stone legislation, any discriminatory escape clause, any pompous self-serving religious and political figures, any idiot arguing from morals on an issue of rights.

We are family too – even if you don’t think we are.

Happy Pride everyone – enjoy the day, whether gay, lesbian, bi, straight, trans or other.

 

On Panti’s Radio Show Tomorrow

Just a quick update to let you know that Daragh (the lil bro) and I will be on Ms. Panti’s radio show tomorrow. The show, broadcast on Open FM, has a special guest on (no, not us). You can listen in through OpenFM.ie or on 89.9FM on the old wireless. We’ll be on at about 7:20pm, so tune in and have a listen. We recorded it during the week and it was very relaxed and great fun to do so I’d like to thank Panti and the team for having us on!