Speaking of my Alpha Male father, I asked him to not call me this weekend, yet he's done so seven times just in the past two hours. I anticipated his behavior, so I'd blocked his number ahead of time: but I still get notified when the voicemail messages hit.

Two of my close, male family members are simultaneously going through strange identity crises-- that's why I've been doing so much research regarding masculinity-related phenomena, such as "soy boy" syndrome, and so-called "trans-genderism", where men are so dysfunctionally effeminate that they start to think they are women.

These issues in my family have utterly consumed both of my parents, to the point where they are hardly even the same people: my mother has basically stopped sleeping and seems hopelessly paralyzed and conflicted, alternatingly battling and enabling; while my incarcerated-and-hence-absent father-- in true Alpha Male fashion-- is continuously hounding me to be the focal support point for the rest of the members in question, to the point where it was beginning to impact my career and my relationship with my own kids.

Because of this, I explained to my mom that for Thanksgiving and Christmas, the kids and I will hang out with her separately from the rest of the family-- not out of anger or frustration, but factually because the family baggage is weighing too heavily on me: I can't really be around either parent without getting bombarded!

What's amusing is that my father's incessant attempts to contact me this morning, against my stated wishes, are cases in point of how all-consumed my parents are with these problems.