Diary of a Working Married Mother: My family vs my other family

My brother’s birthday was coming up and I could not wait to send him birthday wishes. I kept reminding my family that I had to say happy birthday to him as I can be quite terrible with people’s birthdays. Funny enough, I got to send him good wishes at about 5pm that evening. Late I know, but at least I was able to. I sent him what I thought was a sweet cheeky message. He replied about three hours later with two words. Two words.

I love sending messages. Prefer it to calling I guess because I am able to state clearly what I mean, instead of fumbling over a chat. So I was rather disappointed with his reply. I know he was busy and he did appreciate and anyway, I had sent the message late so I was to blame.

Its one of many things that has made me wonder if I have put so much emotion in my nucleus family at the expense of my bigger outer family. A few days before that, my sister had expressed surprise when I called her to say hi, saying I hardly ever call her. I thought also about how often I call, email, send messages to my siblings and parents and have to admit it is not often enough – which is a bad thing. I love them all to bits but how will they know if I do not talk to them?

On the other hand, I pour so much energy into my family. I am in constant touch with Mr everyday, especially via texting. I call the nanny everyday to check on the children and to say hello to them. So how come I do not do this with my other family? I feel so guilty and wonder if I have become too attached to Mr and the children at the expense of my sisters, brothers and parents.

Last year one of my resolutions was to communicate more with them. I thought I had done well but from my sister and brother’s reactions, obviously not.

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