@Szaal has a really good point, family isn’t only contained to blood relations either (though that’s the norm) consider that my closest friend is part of my family as much as my pets are.
TO put things in a general perspective maybe I shall tell a tale!
A few of you know already that I am hormonally challenged to the point where I’m somewhere between male and female. I like to be called an Androgyne. I say this because it plays a big part in my less than normal childhood
I’m constantly at odds with my father (no tact and is generally offensive and insensitive) but he has some good points too, he’s protective, funny and a skilled mr. fixit despite his brutish personality.
I’m not exactly his dream child and insists on my MANHOOD! And I get a kick of flaunting my collections of skirts when I can.
My mother is a busybody and obsessively concerned with my health just can’t help but asking thousands of questions. Though she cares deeply and has been very supportive of my choices throughout my life even the ones she didn’t entirely agree with let me embrace my femininity, taught me how to use makeup and was a buffer between my father’s insistence that I should be his son and not his daughter.
Long story short my childhood was a bit of a mixed bag I was loved though it was tremendously frustrating. Its those kinds of things that bind people together, you like someone for their qualities but love them for their flaws.