Estrangement is tough but sometimes necessary, and in fact it’s easier than maintaining a toxic relationship. I am fully estranged from my father and sister, an

Estrangement is tough but sometimes necessary, and in fact it’s easier than maintaining a toxic relationship. I am fully estranged from my father and sister, and partially from my mother, with whom I have very occasional contact. The reasons are complicated, but suffice it to say that my family history is very troubled and sad. My sister is a nacotics addict who has two children greatly affected by her addiction (both were born addicted and were in an ICU for a month). She doesn’t have legal custody of them, but my parents enable her behaviors and allow her to have the children even she’s not supposed to have unsupervised visits, etc. A long time ago, and with the help of many therapists over the years, I have decided to cut ties, though it was too hard to completely break all contact with my mother. Of course, most people we know are baffled by our estrangement because my parents seem like “such nice people”. But this solves a lot of problems and in fact the sadness I feel is worth not having to deal with the horrible emotional roller coasters and certain fears my wife and I have regarding the safety of our own children. It’s a sad but necessary solution to a complex problem.