So last night I wrote a post detailing the issues in my own family in the course of explaining what Jeffrey Marsh does, as opposed to what you or even he thinks he does and mitigating some of the worst of it. The gist was that there is absolutely no reason why you should accept a family that will not respect your boundaries, and in this he is entirely correct. There are plenty of people who will treat you far better than your family ever will.

I then had a think about it and thought that since I am about to start the best job I have ever had the opportunity to do, for one thing and Ina has never been about anything but answering people who for some reason did not think I would get that opportunity, for another. It is amazing how bullies are always shocked when you turn around and respond, I would just not bother.

There is a codependent who has been pouring poison into his girlfriend/wife/sister’s ear all year about me because I tried to do him a favour last year, a favour which had become necessary due to a misdiagnosis which is no longer an issue thanks to my health knowledge. I am not going to bother with them either.

Do I really want to be involved in anything to do with a family who made it very clear they placed absolutely no value on my life, my opinions, my prospects at all? Does it really matter that they are hyper toxic given that my eldest sister and brother are knocking on 70, the other one is not far behind and none of them will accept that there is anything they need to change about themselves? (I was a very late shock to my parents)

Two people died because of their behaviour towards other people. Were you to tell them this, their first response would be to deny any responsibility for their own behaviour and repeat a verbatim text, handed down from the delusional eldest, probably word for word. It has happened before, and yes they are that stupid and determinedly ignorant.

Anyway, for those who missed it, it was unusually candid and not, therefore, as positive as Ina should be, and I did not think it was worth the worry. Scum should be scraped off your shoe and forgotten about.

What bullies like my neighbour and family always seem to forget is that other people also function and they do not have any entitlement to tell you what to think or say. The dumb neighbour, having failed to intimidate with her boyfriend and phoning the police to report herself, a classic Cluster B move also employed by my sister, then engaged her mother in persisting with the pestering. I responded that I was not at all interested in their squabbles. I do not know where this behaviour is normalised, but it is not here. Just yet more reason not to bother answering the door or helping cold, wet, frightened sundowners who have not been kept safe.

Anyway that was enough of last year. Thankfully this one will be better. None of these people will be featuring. There are two people in my life who care about whether I am happy or sad, neither is Scottish, not surprisingly. I am just going to bother about them.