Slightly off topic but I LOVE your description of “found family leaving the nest” that summarizes it so well and I think really helps put my finger on why some depictions of found family just Aren’t It
Thank you! Yeah I like found family as a trope a lot, but it’s become very buzzword-y as of late; it’s used in ads for books and podcasts that make me go “ok but like…what’s the book about.” I also think people do not recognize that found family and for lack of a better term traditional definitions of family can coexist for many people (ie, it's not always just a replacement but rather an addition), and that found families can physically separate but remain emotionally close. There’s this immensely narrow but extremely popular idea of found family as like…a weird codependent commune that does everything together, and I'm more interested in stories about people who love each other dearly and will always be there emotionally for each other, but also live their own lives and might need to be physically apart sometimes.
