have you ever thought...?

OMG! That is hilarious! Yes, there is one in every family whether adopted or not. And just because they are adopted doesn't mean they get excluded from being "that person"! I'm from the Deep South. I don't know if any of you have ever watched Designing Women on TV, but Julia Sugerbaker was always on a rant about some injustice in the world. One episode was regarding "that person". Her rant about people wanting to hide "that person" from the world by sticking them in a mental institution or whatever was one of the funniest episodes I ever saw.

To paraphrase, she basically said that this is the Deep South, we don't hide our crazy family members in the attic or in a home, we march them right on out into the parlor and let them sit on the front porch. We even allow them to interact with company! We are in fact, PROUD to have that crazy person in our family and would do harm to anyone who ever mistreated them in any way.

I thought about all of the crazies in my family, my oldest sister being the nuttiest of all right now and how true it really is. My Mom was having a huge family dinner and long lost cousins were showing up from all over. We didn't tell my sister because, well because she's mental. Poor thing has had several strokes and it has left her intermittently kookoo, plus she lists to the right when she walks because that is her weak side. So if you lose her you just have to stay in the same spot. She'll eventually make a huge circle and return to you! Hahaha! Anyway, she found out of course. We have a huge family and she lived next door to my Mom. About an hour after everyone arrived here she came. It was too funny not to laugh. My 2 yr old grandson called her Aunt Cockadoodle Doo after a Wiggles song because her hair always looked like a rooster. She comes in with that hair sticking straight up and he runs up to her and starts singing, "Quack Quack Quack, Cockadoodle Doo, etc." and everybody looks up and sees her. Mom nearly fainted. I burst out laughing and she picked up my grandson and said that her hair must not be combed right because he thought she was a rooster. The rest of the family was awed into silence while she made her way to a seat.

You guys, she had on a PJ shirt inside out with no bra (huge kabooms) and a pair of peddle pushers she had had taken in and there was a pair of jean shorts sewn into the seam in the back hanging down that she kept trying swish away with her hand. She had on two different shoes one of which was broken. She did not have her false teeth in and she had lipstick smeared all over her face, red rouge like a clown and a fake eyelash stuck to her cheek.

I sat her down by me and just pretended nothing at all was wrong, but she kept asking me what was so funny because I laughed hysterically through the entire event. Everyone loosened up and got used to her appearance and went on to have a wonderful family dinner. My Mom asked us to put my sister in a nursing home when she died. But I told her that she took all of that way too seriously. Everyone in the world knows the girl has had a dozen strokes and she's lucky she can walk and talk and feed herself. If she acts crazy 3 out of 5 days, so what.

I did get her into an assisted living apartment after my Mom died and she has appointed herself as "The High Priestess of St. Helena". She's in the paper all the time for some thing or another. One Thanksgiving she cooked for all of the residents of the apartment complex. Well, word of it traveled and a reporter came out and asked her why she did it. She said because it was one of her duties to provide for her peasants as The High Priestess of St. Helena. Every time one of my friends calls or sees me they ask how The High Priestess is. My answer is always the same - As crazy as ever.

You already know my answer. IT'S ME!!!! I'm the freak of the family. I've only been married once. I think the government has a hidden agenda. I don't think I'm better than any one else, maybe more fortunate but not "better". I put a child up for adoption. And I don't much give a rats behind what they think. I smelled funny when I was younger (it was pot) and I dressed in anything that would make them embarrassed, talk about me more and stay at an arms length. Now you know why they are so standoffish to you. Their frail little hearts can't go through it again. Ten minutes around you and they want to RUN.

HOLY CRAP THERE'S TWO OF THEM!!!!!!

I will admit to this, though I will also say I feel a little guilty about it. I mean, I love them, but some of the things that come out of their mouths just make me wonder. (Seriously, some of the stuff, if I were to repeat it here, would get me reported, and rightly so.)

But I will also say, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they feel the same way. I am, in some ways, the black sheep, the weird one, in my adoptive family. Of all the family members who aren't in-laws, I have the highest degree, I work in the odd field (higher education), I am probably the odd-man out politically, etc. So I do recognize that it might go both ways.

But I really do know what you mean. Everyone probably thinks things like this about their family, but as an adoptee, I sometimes think I feel more guilty about it. Ah well...

I love this question! When I told my husband I was adopted, he didn't respond right away and I was worried that this might be a problem.. Then he sighed and said "what a relief that is!" He now loves my mother very much but shared later that she was a real concern and my being adopted put him at east that I wouldn't be like her later :)

In my adopted families cancer, heart disease, stroke, Turner's Syndrom, and learning disorders are present on one side or the other. I don't know my medical history but I fugure it couldn't be worse than this.

Yes. But I didn't feel too bad when I found out other relatives in my adoptive family who had married into the family felt the same way about that person. Even people who were blood relations were glad they weren't too closely related in the gene pool.

What a great question! And Isn't it true! My adopted parents were alcoholics. Knowing there is often a genetic link, I'm grateful that I'm not genetically related.

Being a 'daddy's girl', I love my dad very much. So I totally understand the guilt for thinking such a thing (as Phil mentioned).

With my adopted mom, not so much. I TRIED to love her! I really did!! We just never bonded. She's quite mean spirited. She was particularly mean to me. Being adopted provided me an emotional 'buffer' of sorts against her cruelty (once I became an adult). And made it easier to accept being "unadopted" by her 11 years ago (when my dad died). I refer to her as my "step mom" or just by her first name. And of course, my husband is also quite happy I'm not genetically related.

I heard an adoptive mom joke about this once with one of her kids, saying "I don't know where she got THAT from! She didn't get it from me!" It was said with much love & a total sense of fun. And it made me laugh.

PS Oh...and I feel kinda bad for my brother and sister. They ARE genetically related to the 'step mom'.

This is the best question EVER asked on here..EVER...did I say EVER???

I've thought that a couple of times. I love my family more that life itself but wow there are some odd ones here and there!

Yes, as an adoptee I am glad I don't share DNA with my adoptive parents but like Phil said, it probably goes both ways.

Afraid I'm the most eccentric one in my family (although not as nutty as your examples)! I am glad I don't share the genes that have caused my a'mom's family to be prone to cancer and migraines though.

LMAO I know what you mean. My uncle smells like mints and always turns his hearing aid off when he wants no one to talk to him! ha ha I just find him funny. When he talks to you though he shouts. The joys eh? ha