Family

If there is one thing in life I cannot handle, it is family. I am not talking about the direct family, but more about the indirect family. Those that you do not really want to get involved with or those you would not even talk to if they were not indirectly linked to you.

Here I am thinking about people that are called father-in-law; mother-in-law; brother-in-law; sister-in-law; wife/husband's uncle or aunt or cousin. Someone that normally sits on the "other" side of the family. Why is it that there are always one of these around who try their absolute best to make your life miserable? How many times to you hear someone compaining about something the in-laws did? You never hear a person - no let me rephrase - you hardly ever hear a person complain about things his/her parents did!

Why are the majority of mothers-in -law such bitches? I cannot tell you in any scientific pole that I came to tis conclusion, but through experience and lots of conversations with other people on our planet, it seems to be a fact. the only people who get along well with these monsters-in-law, are the ones who only sees them for about a week or two every year. They have limited time and it is normally consumed by someone else, so the time for things to go wrong is limited. That is normally a great relationship.

How many of you have a brother-in-law or brother or cousin that ow you money? I bet that it is the case of more that 60% of you reading this blog. It seems to be one of those natural things in life that the biggest chancer in the family will contact you for money and even though you always promise that it will never happen again it always seems to happen again and you roll over again. I have a friend who said that his cousin has already borrowed in the region of R80k from him over the years! can you belive it! R80k! He said that he asked him one day if he has any plan to start paying him back and the cousin apologised and said that he sould make R250 p/m payments. Work it out for yourself - R80k / 250 = 320 months = nearly 27 years! I would be dead by then! I agreed that it would be ok and he started paying the first month and then the second month and then.... nah it stopped. It was just to good to be true. Now he does not answer a phone as it has been disconnected for the millionth time. Shame he is struggeling, maybe I yould lend him some money .....

Even worse, how many of you have someone from the in-law family that is a druggie. Yes, he snorts, chews, licks, smokes or injects some sort of illegal substance and he steals from your house to asist his habbit and when he gets caught, the whole family feels sorry for him and expects you to bail him out and take him in until he is back on his feet. Take him in! TAKE HIM IN1 The same fucker who sold your CD's and cutlery and clothes to snort it through his nose? Not in your lifetime.

He has been living here for the ninth month and seems to be coming along fine....

What about that family member that is just too useless to work? You know him? Yes, we all know him! He could be the same as the one that has borrowed so much from you. This bugger normally has more talent in one finger than you have in your entire body, yes he is just too useless to work. He has worked for about 20 companies and each one of them raves about the work he did there. It can vary from banking to fitter and turner to building contractor. He can walk in and do any job, although he only scraped through school. He leaves good jobs to come an lie on your couch at home and flip through your TV channels and drink your beer. Then he borrows your car, your money and takes the most stunning girl you have ever met to the restuarant you opnly dream of going to. If you question him on it, he just says that you have no style. The best is when he goes out on a date with the money he borrowed from you and then gives you double it back the next morning for your trouble. When you shokingly question about where the money comes from - don't wwant him to rob the corner cafee - he says that that stunning girl he went out with gave him R5000 because he battling to make ends meet while he is between jobs! Between jobs? You can only have that status if you actually look for work!

I have heard so many stories in my life about these "other" familly members that I can write hours of stories. Yes, we all hate them, but looking back there is just about something comical in all the events and they do make life interesting.....Mmm