Soooo tired of people with their eyeballs too close together scolding others about this based on an idealized postcard-picture idea of what a typical family is. “Strong family ties are a good thing” — you know what? In a good family, they’re good; in a bad family, they’re evil. So much of what people call the disintegration of family ties in the past century is really the exposing of outright exploitation, abuse and subjugation inflicted on children by parents with traditional family structures and dependencies as their main lever. It’s decades past time for people to stop talking about blood family ties as if they’re a sacred, unmitigated good. The lived experience of people all around you ought to be a clue.