Are you attached to your family?

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i love my sister, but it's not such a verbal connection. she is in the states, and we hardly ever talk on the phone. we get along fine in person though, and i feel comfiest around her. she is very logical and straight to the point but understanding, she's good.
my parents, well, i live with them. but i dont trus them very much. i really do not like my dad. i dont want him at my wedding. my mother seems selfish, neither of them care to understand, or believe i may have a mental problem.
i suppose i would talk to them when i move out, but as little as possible. when i can provide for myself 100%, i definately wont be answering their calls much.

Last contacts with family - 2000 Mother's death, 2007 Brother's death. 4 to go.

Not very emotionally attached to them at all. :/ When I go on vacations away from them, I tend to miss my dogs or bird rather than my family. It doesn't occur to me to call my mom and let her know how I've been or anything like that. I'm much more attached to friends than any member of my family.

I know I ought to care about them more than I do, but I just don't connect with them.

In some way, though I mostly have contact with my dad, I'm visiting him every second weekend, other than that I sometimes visit relatives, cousins, aunts, uncles etc.

My family ties are all knotted up. Some are even cut off completely.

I was hoping that my related family and my step-family would get along. But it seems like the only ones who do are my step-mother and my father, everyone else just has uneasy feelings towards or don't even know about the other half of the family. I tried to bring them together (invite them over for birthdays, weddings, Christmas, seeing me in high school plays, etc.) but it was no use. I felt like a bridge connecting two floating islands that were moving away from each other, being stretched to the point where I felt like I was going to break. Part of me wished that I didn't have a family, that way I didn't have to put up with all this tension. But at the same time, I love my family & they cared for me. If I didn't have them, then who would be there for me?

The three main people I keep in touch with are my father, my grandmother, and my youngest step-sister.

little to no emotional attachment, and i constantly isolate myself from them.

somewhat - not much. barely contact the father's 'side of the family' for one - lol divorce and single mother.

limited with mother's 'side' of family. Some annoying things like thanksgiving dinnners I wil not go to due to havig to act a certain way/do xyz rituals/etc. good with my grandmother

weaker with my mother

Well, with my parents, I prefer to keep them at arm's length...that is, strictly business.

I mean, I'm glad that they love me and that I'm still welcome at my old homestead, but to be honest, they exist now only to give me rides to places.

The only sibling I feel comfortable with is Christian, the second oldest of my parents' 5 kids (I'm the eldest). Even though he picks on me the most, he's a good guy. ^_^

This is an interesting topic.
I don't have Aspergers (I think) but have AS 2 teenage sons. I suspect my 17 yo is attached in a mild sort of way to me but goes through the motions because that's what's expected of him. My 15 yo is quite attached - I think!

Coming from a non-AS view, lack of attachment to family members can happen to everyone. But I have been distancing myself over the years from the rest of the family because if they can't accept my boys for the wonderful quirky people they are, then I don't want them in my life. My parents have never bothered to learn anything about Aspergers and a simple misunderstanding that occurred with my 15 yo which resulted in a complete family breakdown has prompted me to have no more contact with one sister - and i was very close to all of my sisters until recently. After all these years, not bothering to learn anything about Aspergers (and watching Tony Attwood on National Meet the Press isn't enough) has resulted in me re-evaluating all my relationships. I find I'm now in the position where i won't know if I love my parents until they die - and I feel that's a horrible way to be but it doesn't make me want to be closer to them. Now i feel indifferent to them so i would say I'm not attached to them at all.
Who am I really attached to apart from hubby and other 2 sisters who are very supportive? My mother-in-law!

I am very very attached to my immediate family, and pretty attached to my extended family also. I can't immagine being any other way.

I have no real emotional attachment. I dont think I have ever felt the 'love' that I see families express in the world around me. I have friends who express so much love for their parents and siblings and I often feel so jealous that I dont feel this... even when I try to feel it.

Before I knew about AS I just thought I was a freak. After knowing I dont feel like a freak but there is a big part of me that is still jealous. I think I'm jealous though because I am surrounded by this 'love' that I can not feel. Dont get me wrong... I would kill anybody who crossed my family but that is more from a sense of loyalty rather than love. (I wouldnt really kill anybody - its just an expression to validate my point... but you already know that lol).

I look at my heart and it looks back saying 'Am I supposed to do something now? Why are you disturbing me?' Its hard for me to explain this but theres nothing there... and it feels weird because something tells me that there SHOULD be something there. But that is the 'love' proganda machine that affects 99% of all our lives - TV, film, posters, bilboards, other people etc etc

Anyway, when my parents die it will kill me inside and I wont understand the excruciating pain of sorrow that I will feel... just as I dont understand the feelings of 'love' I am supposed to have for them now!

What a contradiction!! ! Yet both feelings (or lack of) are real.

Not really, I just do what they ask and try to give emotional attachment to them, but in reality I really don't know how. I don't have relationships with my folks since I'm the third child. Mom favors my older sister and half little brother, dad favors older brother and half little sister. I'm sort of the punching bag mentally for my family. So that hasn't helped on the "I love you" front. But I still don't know what it is with other people as well. I wouldn't be bothered if any of them died either, it's not that I'm mad, I seriously don't think it would bother me. Whenever they yell at me I beat myself up on the inside for weeks after wards, even when I remember I get super mad at myself all over again...