hi again maryanne, many ppl are a family of 2. i raised my son alone from the time he was 3. when we compare we lose sight of what we have. i used to play child board games or cards-go fish, war, etc., with tom each night, sundays we went to the park and had a picnic..met ppl there too, movies that were on his scale... for a few ideas. tom always kind of knew what to expect with our doing things together. sometimes we'd just take a drive "to explore". we said we were on an adventure. since he was an only child i also tried to include one of his little friends sometimes.
i lived quite far from my disfunctional family. but we had each other!
as for "running from" try to "run to". i use this phrase...if i run from, when i stop running i find i'm the only one there. i can't get away from self. so my efforts are fruitless. nothing changes. it helps if we "create" our lives. it provides us with hope.