“My cousin (who was something like 25 at the time, and had been in and out of prison more than once by then) was caught stealing from my grandmother’s house at a family gathering. She publicly confronted him and moved to grab back the stuff he was making off with, and he responded by throwing a pottery jug… thing, at her. She was knocked backwards against the mantle, where there were lit candles, proceeded to catch on fire, then stepped right back forwards and beat the crap out of him while still on fire before finally taking off her flaming shawl and stomping it out. I’ve gotta say, the sight of a little old lady wreathed in flames and stepping back forwards to deliver retribution was pretty badass.”

“My uncle got his girlfriend pregnant when they were both 15. His family and her family insisted that they get married after they both graduated, they ended up dropping out. 2 years later they had two more children then she decides that she’s too young to be a mother and leaves him with all 3 children. He struggled his whole life to try and make a life for his kids but always had problems with money. Fast forward 20 years later and all of the kids have forgiven their mother and go out of their way to spend time with her, which is drama in itself. Then last year at the youngest kids wedding his ex wife decided to tell him, the oldest isn’t his kid. He changed his whole life ended up dropping out of school to raise a child that ended up not even being his.”

“My mother remarried when I was a senior in high school. Her husband’s son (about my age) fell in love with and married my mother’s sister’s daughter. To clarify, my step-brother is married to my first cousin. Their kids don’t help make Christmas any less awkward, now that mom and my aunt are both Grandma to the same kids.”

“In my Freshman year of High School, my mom decided to start attending community college. She met a 22 year old there, she developed a crush on him. He was seriously some sort of pedophile, because he decided he liked me, a 14 year old. My mother forced me to go on dates with him. Eventually she tried to force me to sleep with him. My mother has been all controlling my whole life, but I knew this was too fucked up. I got my Dad involved after I got molested. My mother left with that 22 year old and my two younger brothers. They began dating – she made sure I was well aware he liked her now. To make me jealous? I don’t know. Creepy as fuck. That’s how my parents ended up separated. Chaos ensued. It’s still not over.”

“In one years time we had two close family relatives die that were hoarders. I’m talking floor to ceiling, nowhere to sit, numerous dead rats, only one walkway in a 2000 sq ft. home, have to wear a mask hoarding. We literally had to dig our way out of the house. Because of the family dynamics, the task landed primarily on me and my husband. On weekends, because ya know, OUR life had to keep moving with jobs and such. Our daughter was 4 at the time. Funny enough, a family friend is dying of cancer (that’s not the funny part). When we sat our daughter down to let her know her first comment was, “Oh no, another house to clean.” It took us a second, but we realized that we had to clean a hoarded house every time someone she knew died. She was EXTREMELY relieved to know that’s not how it works every time.”

“Depression runs pretty heavy through my family, so when someone is having an episode, drama ensues. Most recently, someone tore up a bunch of our baby photos. Like wtf. Most epic though is, I guess, me and all my brothers have all (separately) worked our way through drug rings, so back in the day, someone would mention this or that, and you could say it was your brother. Great fun.”

“About a year ago, my cousin and his girlfriend announced they were getting married and set the date for about 3 months away. The wedding comes, and the day after, my cousin and his new bride announce that they found out they were pregnant a week before. About a month goes by, and suddenly we hear the news from my cousin’s mom: the bride cheated on my cousin just before the wedding with her ex-husband, and she doesn’t know whose baby it is. Then, my cousin broadcasts this to our whole family. A month or two after this revelation, my cousin gets drunk and he and his wife have a fight about the paternity of the baby. My cousin had agreed not to get a paternity test, but apparently it was still an issue with him. His new wife then decides to put every detail of the fight on Facebook, but only posts enough to make herself seem like the victim (I’m not saying my cousin isn’t at fault). My family is STILL talking about the drama.”

“My aunt is the basis of most of it. She married at like 17 because she was pregnant. She was in in a fist fight with her sister in law in front of us, a bunch of 5-8 year olds, that ended in us not seeing our cousins until we were teenagers. Once we reconnected, she started saying things about my family to our extended family in Mexico & elsewhere. We stopped talking to them after they accused my dad of trying to kiss one of her kids, who was 18 & a known liar among the kids. She also has a kid by her ex-boss that her husband is raising because he’s a good guy.”

“My great aunt left my great uncle for my uncle. She basically left her husband to marry her nephew who is over 20 years her junior. None of her children talk to her anymore and my uncle was basically cast out of the family. Everybody considers it a huge tragedy.”

“My grandma lives in our village, my mother left that village when she was young to marry my father. My aunt still lives in the village and she uses my grandma in every fucking way. First of all whenever grandma gets money on her hands she suddenly remembers she loves her, she is never there unless she can take money. My grandma is ill we have repeatedly tried telling my aunt to take her to a doctor since we are like 600 km away we can’t do it by ourselves. Every time we call her she will say to us to take her and that its not her job, sometimes she says to not bother her again with that she doesn’t care. She won’t talk to my mother because my mother got 500 bucks from grandma and returned them 3 months later, aunt claims she never has even though she was in front of my mother giving the money back (all this while she takes 100 euros every month with no plans for returning them) When my grandpa died she refused to pay for anything about the funeral with her reason being that she has kids (while she has 2 and they are grown ass men while my mother who had to pay for the whole thing has 4 and all of them were still not even close to adults.)”

“My mother is completely estranged from her family but tries to make sure we have a relationship with them partially so we aren’t compels relative-less and partially so she can continue to get information about them/somehow stay connected. The reason they are estranged is pretty fucked up. My dad was abusive as shit all through my childhood and put my mom in the hospital more than once. After the divorce my moms family still invited him to holidays and used him for free medical treatment.”

“The rumor is that my grandmother dug up her father’s ashes because she believed he’d rather be elsewhere. It’s more likely that she just never put them in the box that was buried, and kept them in the trunk of her car instead. But no one really knows and she claims to not hear us when we ask… Subsequently, we only have a an educated guess as to where his ashes are.”

“my uncle got into a huge fight with his son over being a good parent. Basically what had happened was the son left his baby at his uncle house to get medicine for the child,however no one was watching him till my aunt showed up,then it led to my uncle blowing up the son’s phone and when he came back they had a fight with resulted in the uncle banning the son from the house. Fast forward years later and the first time in years the son been home they go at it hard. And I mean screaming and cursing and nearly fighting…in front of the baby it took 20 minutes to calm them down and my mom made them make up they are the best of friends now.”

“All yams are sweet potatoes, not all sweet potatoes are yams. This shit has been going on for decades.”