Mouse,

I remember being around 8 and fantasizing that my family "quietly and painlessly died and I was adopted by a nice family".

This was my actual birth family and I wanted desperately to be with the family down the street where all was clean and tidy and perfect - I thought - until that mom had a nervous breakdown and I happened to be there that day. She blamed me for always being at her house.

After that I only borrowed "book families". It was safer.

I guess all children dream of a safe and loving family if they don't have one of their own.

Leslie and the Pixies