Connecting

[Microcosm]

Me and my family have grown kind of apart over the past few years. We moved about five or six years ago. We slowly drifted after that, but first let me tell you about my family.

I am the youngest. Two other brothers. Both are older than me.
Then my mom and Dad, who both have a pretty good relationship. They argued a little for a couple of weeks about a year ago, but other than that, they are really close and comfortable being together.

When we moved we would always watch movies as a family at night. Almost every night this would happen. My dad was really into movies, but after a while as my brothers grew older, they stopped watching them with us. They got into video games and let it take over their lives for a really long time. My middle brother still is kind of obsessed with it, but my oldest brother is about to start college, so he is a bit better now. Although he still sits in his room all day. The only difference is that now he's into more mature stuff than video games(like anime for instance). My dad has always been depressed, but he has gotten worse ever since we moved into our new house. Nothing triggered it. It's just the way he is. Anyways, all he does is sit around and watch TV now. My mom doesn't work either. We are in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. Actually a lot better than most kids get, which I feel a little guilty about sometimes. My mom doesn't do much, but she isn't depressed. She takes care of me and my brothers and we usually come to her to discuss any problems. My problem is: It's almost like we aren't really acting like family, but more like friends. Like we just chat and never really do anything together. We went to the beach about two weeks ago, but it was the first time we've been on vacation in a long time(like two years). Any advice is appreciated. I just needed to vent.

[Living For Love]

I guess your brothers are starting to become "real adults", and they simply want their privacy, and doing their stuff alone with no one bothering. and probably your parents think you guys are starting to become older and perhaps you three prefer to hang out with friends or do stuff on your own rather than spending time with your family. You don't have to worry about it, me and my family, we generally don't do much things together during most time of the year because we are always busy with either school or work, but it doesn't mean we're not close to each other, just like it doesn't mean your family isn't united if you don't do activities together.

[ImCoolBeans]

If you're unhappy about your family's ethos, and it doesn't seem to be improving on it's own, then perhaps you should try to improve it yourself. You could suggest things to them to do together. My brothers are a lot older than me, so throughout my growing up we didn't do much together, but I have always been very close with my mom and we always have. You mentioned that you're comfortable with talking to your mom about your problems, have you spoken to her about your feelings regarding this? You don't need to tell her everything if you don't want to, but maybe suggest that you want to do more as a family, because you feel that you don't do that as much as you used to. As for your brothers, I'm not sure if there is much you can do about that. Sometimes when people are growing up, or have grown up a bit, they like to keep to themselves. You could also talk to them about the lack of spending time together -- they're your brothers after all -- I'm sure they'll hear you out.