“That’s what they’re supposed to do because we’re family”.

Does merely being related offer a guarantee that members of a biological unit should expect kindness without being thankful?

Never.

Family isn’t a family without a special tie, and those ties are created by the loving interactions, whether physical or verbal, that we embrace them with every day. To take advantage of someone because we believe our relationship with them is one in which exceptions are OK is extremely hurtful. I’ve seen people treat their friends better then their parents, brothers or sisters.

How can this be?

Connected by genes somehow makes many think that they deserve special treatment outside of those they are only familiar with. As if somehow, due to no fault or choice of their own, they are required to give without appreciation just because they are tied to one another by the force of nature.

Family needs to stick together, should they not? Indeed they should. However, there are no set of written rules that lists the duties of what is required by each member of a family to another. If we are lucky enough to be born into a life where we are blessed with others in a close knit relationship, shouldn’t we appreciate those people even more?

Appreciation seems to have somehow gotten lost under the words expected and neglected.

What we do for members of our family is normally out of the love or bonding we feel toward them. Should it also mean that because we normally feel stronger toward these people that we feel they need not hear words of praise or thankfulness? Should we expect them to do what we may not feel like doing ourselves, then turn around and neglect to thank them for it. Does being part of a family give you a “free pass” to take advantage of the same people who’d never take advantage of you?

In many families, it happens on a daily basis.

This possibly occurs because as members of a family, we don’t verbally spell out rules or requirements. We may loan our neighbor some money, and both the giver and receiver know it’s a mutual contract to repay in the future. In a family, it’s just what families do.

That’s entirely incorrect. The fact that someone so dear to us is willing to help (the very reason they’re dear to us begin with) should never go unnoticed or be taken advantage of. In fact, the selflessness they bestow on us is a gift that should never be forgotten.

Family members take advantage of one another’s kindness because they think they have the right too. The ties that bind them make it seem OK. What soon happens, is the ties unravel into strings of animosity and pain that can never be woven again.

When a family member comes through for you, consider it a wonderful thing. They are never required to act just because of their biological relation to you; they do so because they are special people.

Learn from them.

If you continue to take advantage of their kindness, you may find yourself empty handed with a family who has given up, solely because they know what they do for you doesn’t matter.

Always let them know it does.

You’ll never know when you’ll need their kindness again.