To begin I would like to breifly explain my family. I have a mum and dad and an older sister who is two years older. I am currently 20 years old and in my third year of nursing at Southampton.
My family has always been 'different' to put it mildly, you know some families just talk about everything, hug each other and say they love each other... well my family is the complete opposite. As far as I remember my parents have never told me directly that they love me, I know they do but it would just be nice for them to occasionally say it. I have been brought up thinking that to say I love them or vice-versa is a sign of weakness, as is showing my feelings. Because of this it is always hard to know what each memebr of my family is going through, what they are feeling and how they are generally coping with life.
My first example of my mother not telling me something significant is when she had half her thyroid removed, she told me a few days after (at least she told me) but not only that, she failed to mention that it could have been cancer- luckily it wasn't. A time when I didn't tell my parents straight away about my health issues was when my dermatologist was very concerned about one of my moles dramatically enlarging, fortunatly it was benign.
So in summary my family has a history of 'protecting' each other though not telling the truth and in all honesty I think this is more dangerous, I know many parents think keeping the 'harsh' truth from us children is protecting us, but it doesn't because we are smart and we find out the truth and the thing that hurts me the most is the fact that they cannot trust us with the truth.
