Blood is thicker than water is a saying that I often reflect on as family ties are meant to be the strongest being the ones you can trust and rely on the most. From experience I would say it is more true with direct family as the thinking is we all look out for everyone's best interest or our intentions are more pure than they would be with someone else. The larger extended family group not so and even though there is a bond through marriage they are not my blood and have been burned too many times to say I can rely on them.
I bought this subject up as we have had a recent episode of a few family members not on my side, but on the other half do certain actions that I would not say is in the spirit of a family relationship. If I am honest I was not surprised by what they have done, but more disappointed as this was a put me first and to hell with the consequences which is not what you would expect.
To give you some background without revealing too much many years ago I managed to apply and get my hands on a general import license which covered every commodity. I never thought at the time this was unique or anything special as the majority of businesses used an import permit that clearly specified what the business specialty was and that permit pertained to that type of business. At the time I was dealing in electronics and had no idea what I would be trading in 5 years time so I applied for a general import permit which is no longer available. This import permit is actually worth quite a bit for what it offers and had no problems letting the other extended family businesses use this. There was no thought of charging as it is there if anyone requires to use this.
The one family in question has another import permit which another family member asked to use and was told they could for a percentage fee. They were not joking either and were dead serious and has kind of destroyed any relationship within the family group. This is all me me first and kind of expected this from these two people having known them for many years.
Certain actions also have consequences so the free services my family had been doing for a good 3 years now being one of our smaller clients has now ended and their stock has been or in the process of being removed. This service we offered freely we place at a dollar value of around $2.5K monthly so they will find out now they will have to finance this themselves. This is actually a happy ending for the immediate family and a good result leading to the right outcome.
There are a few other extended family members where bridges have been burned and cannot be rebuilt due to their actions. One tried to screw me over back in 2019 with regard to World Cup ruby tickets and cost me about $5k due to their greedy actions. Other family member sat the time asked me to forget it, but those same people were screwed over by the same person and strangely enough feel the same way I do now.
You cannot choose your family and one would hope everyone thinks like you having the best intentions for those who are part of your inner circle. I have business acquaintances who I trust more than certain family members which says something about the saying blood thicker than water.