Depends entirely on the family. I talk to my older brother almost every day, and my younger sister often. My mom who is 70, walks 3 miles a day in the mornings and usually calls me while I'm at work to chat. My dad lifts weights with me.

I happen to be extremely lucky in that regard, but it has more to do with the relationships that we forged than the blood in our veins.

This is something I have been thinking about as well. You can care for one another even if you don't share values. What is important is looking out for one another and having each other's backs while having healthy boundaries. Even in the sense of libertarianism, who the 'I' is is important. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and (to quote some quantum mechanics) I think the 'I' is a superposition of multiple wave functions of the people around you and those caring for one another. You pick up things from people who influence you, and more so from family, as you learn a lot from those you grow up with(for better or for worse, you don't have any other frame of reference). If you do grow up around an abusive family, I think it is important to learn those anti-patterns and learn those boundaries and choose a family of people around you. IMO, the bottom line is that human beings are social creatures(even the autistic ones amongst us), and those social connections helped the tribe survive in our hunter-gatherer past. Humans are not strong or fast individually (compared to predators in the jungle), but collectively, once we cooperate, we can get far to Mars and figure out nuclear fission and, hopefully, fusion. I identify with libertarianism, and I think one can value family and still be a libertarian. Or at least that's what I tell myself, haha

not necessarily something i am aligned with, but everybody has a different situation. certainly some of my family are neither blood, nor wealthy... nor do we align politically. but they raised me in large part, and i was raised with their children, and so... they are family. they remember who i was, and have (some) context for what i'm becoming (to the extent that i'm able to share those things with them, without it devolving into political argument).

i also have friends that i think of as family. but i wonder would they take care of me if i were paralyzed, terminal, or incapacitated in some way. it's a heuristic that can be upsetting to spend much time applying to the relationships in one's life.

if your therapist isn't providing you homework, then you need to figure out what homework you're going to do. weekly/bi-weekly sessions to complain & gripe at somebody for $150/hr is a way to use money and that process may be palliative, but it's not gonna cure the underlying issues unless you're really digging in and affirming that you're there to grow & improve yourself.

and like physical therapy, sometimes you can overstrain yourself in psychological therapy... so we must be gently caring for ourselves.

Can’t put a price on family

First off, I think it's super important to keep healthy boundaries with anyone, including and especially family, if the relationship is hurtful. I don't think family members should get a free pass to be hurtful.

That being said, I think there is something important about family, especially if there are differences. Choosing to maintain some level of closeness with your family often requires you to learn difficult relational skills, and I think generally that's a net benefit to society.

To be able to say "you have some really problematic patterns of thinking, and I can see that better than most because I grew up with you, but I'm not going to leave you - I'm going to love you and continue to prioritize our relationship so that we have someone we can depend on no matter what" is important.

I understand your feeling, but the exception cannot confirm the rule for your question, because I believe that the family is still a support for most people. For example, friendship can also be overvalued by being very judicious. Everyone can make a list of great friends, but how many do you still see every day and how many do you not even meet anymore? In the end, what remains is the family, but if this is irremediable, learn lessons to build your own family nucleus.

No one can choose their parents, but we can choose our spouse and build the family we'd like.

I don't think family is overvalued. Family is important to many people, but that doesn't mean it's the same for everyone. If you don't feel good with your family, you should find a place where you do. If you share more common values with certain friends, that might be the place where you truly belong.

family is very important.. The fact that one can have a shit family doesnt mean its less important.. To eat is important, and because some people dont have food, doesnt mean all others can survive without eating... If your past family is shit, start your own family..

If you don't feel close to them, you don't have to get close to them.