Explanation of Real Family or "Pretend" Family

"Friends are the family you choose"

Hello, 
So, I know this is kinda odd, but I have extended family, and not in the normal sense.
I have been brought up to believe that being a part of a family is an honour, and you are lucky to be in your family and that families can break up and change and you can be considered as having no family at all just because one has ostracised themselves from their family, which is heartbreaking. 

Now I do have real actual blood related family, and I am not adopted regardless of what my sister tells me, however....

I have three people I call "mum"
1) my own mother, a small and mother like figure to just about everyone
2) Glenn's mum, Sue
3) my best friend Eleri's mum, Rosy

These are women I call mum, maybe not all the time but frequently enough so now they respond in a normal fashion. 

I also have a few people I call "dad"

1) my own father, crazy wild man of western Wales.
2) another best friend, Claire C's dad, Mike
3) Eleri's dad, Martin

I do actually refer to these people as mum and dad when discussing them in conversation, which often leads to a confusion, especially when those conversations are with people who are in my own "real" family. 

I also have a Sisters, of which there are too many to mention, but see here 
This little habit of "collecting" people to place in my own "family" and sometimes a clarification is needed of who is actually "blood" family and who is my chosen family. 

I feel the need to explain here that to me the word family does not mean the people biologically and legally bound to love or like or care for you. Family are not the distant relatives who make you feel unwelcome in their home or their lives. 

To me, Family are the people who will be there on the brightest and darkest of days, people who care for you when you need it, even if you don't want it, the people who love you when you're being a horrid person because they know that is not who you are and that is just what you are feeling. Family are the people who you can call at 11pm and talk for three hours because your frightened of being in a big house all alone, they are the ones who don't do things for you because they are meant to or have to but because they are the ones who unconditionally love you and will do forever. 

Some of the people in my family I rarely get to see, but when I sit at their table with their "real" family after months, even years, it's like I never left. 

To me, family are the people who will always make you feel they are family and they are more than just best friends or good people.

And for these people I would travel to the ends of the earth.

Take care,
Claire xx