Do you think it's necessary to have a relationship with your immediate family?

Family units have become complicated and some broken and torn to the point of no return. One in five children will lose touch with one parent forever. How can our lives become so chaotic that we have become lost souls and unable to love our families?

I often write about love, friendships, and commitment, but how has the world become so torn on the home front? With a new generation growing up without both parents, we will see more hatred, crime, and less compassion from these children, to the point that families will become almost non-existent.

So do you think it is necessary to have a relationships with your immediate family no matter what? I say that sometimes family members will all but forsake you, leaving you with feelings of doom and gloom and treat you far worse than a stranger on the street. Is love enough to conquer and forgive all in a household, when that one person makes your total life miserable and does nothing to show you love.

I don't think it is wrong to keep family members who are undesirable at arms length and not let them invade your life if they are negative and have full blown hatred towards you. I can say there have been family members in my immediate family that I have not loved and it was not because I didn't try, but because it was all but impossible. I forgave them, however the relationship was completely broken, damaged, and irreversable.

I think we all start out in life wanting to be loved by everyone in our family but sometimes the damage that is done is hard to get out of and correct it. Everyone has their own ideas of what a relationship should be, but I think if it is unhealthy then no you don't need to have a relationship with them.

Sometimes in life we just have to move on from people who mean us harm and don't care about us. It doesn't mean you can't love them but sometimes you just have to love them from a distance.