1. Holidays. Are. Chaotic. In the best possible way, of course.
Holidays for people with traditional families are dysfunctional enough, but when you have two back-to-back dinners and a party to attend within a 4 hour span, things can get down right messy. You may as well type up your holiday schedule and hand it out in advance because it takes at least 10 minutes to answer the “What are your plans for Christmas?” question.
2. You had to get used to eating at least two full meals back to back.
Four christmas dinners, two Easter brunches, the list goes on and on. It may be hard to stuff yourself, but let’s be honest, when mom’s making fettucine and dad’s making steak, your stomach can take one (or two) for the team.
3. You also always had the biggest cheering section.
It’s true that tickets for two separate groups were hard to come by, but when your senior night or honor society induction rolled around, you could always count on your crew(s) to be front and center. Of course, Mom, Dad, stepmom, stepdad, all 4 sets of g-rents, and siblings can make quite a ruckus in every possible venue, but you love them for it.
4. You have to tell every story multiple times.
The good, the bad, and the ugly must be told over and over and over again. Conversation with mom? You have to then call dad, grandma, grandpa ,stepmom, stepdad, etc. Smoke signals would probably be more convenient.
5. You couldn’t imagine it any other way.
Even though divorce and separation can be a very difficult, trying event in a family’s life, sometimes things have to collapse before they can be rebuilt into something even better. In this case, you probably got tons of amazing new additions like step parents, step sibs, and step g-rents. Having separated parents isn’t the end of your family, or the world for that matter, and it can be an amazing new beginning filled with double the laughter, memories, and love (and christmas presents).