Well, my knee jerk reaction when reading this is volunteer someplace. I'm not sure if that is something you could navigate, not sure if the ones who want no part of connecting with others would be cool with that, but maybe? I don't know where you lie or what is available, but in my town we have no shortage of retirement communities and care type places and you can volunteer to be someone's 'grandchild' and that could help the little one get a dad connect with a new family member of choice. Then there are places, not sure about where you are but maybe, like after school programs, at risk youth programs, and they might be cool with you volunteering to do something, even if it's just setting up a food/beverage table and doing something like handing out gatorade to kids who just got done playing ball or whatever. I guess the short of it, is sometimes the family of origin we get is crap. But families of choice can be a lot better and some of them might want/need you as much or more as you might want/need them. Again, no idea if that would be applicable to you, but just where my brain went when reading.

I wanted to say to, I really do understand the internal conflict that happens when some want one thing and others want something very different. It can be damn near impossible to deal with that when there is no compromise or control over who things like who is even going to be here that day and how will that work out. And how does one even begin to harmonize such different wants and needs? To say it's messy is an understatement. I hope that you and yours can find a way to balance this and find some kind of compromise that works for you as a whole. Wishing you well in this.

-Avery