Any other parents out there that have never had family help them?

Surely I can't be the only one but all my friends seem to have parents, brothers, sisters, etc. that always are eager to help raise the kids. Granted, my kids are now older but when my ex was pregnant with my first child, my mum explicitly said she was done with kids. Didn't want to be a grandmother and that her time for parenting was up. Fair enough. Hurt me like hell because she was a single mum. Her and I were close growing up so figured she'd always love to help. I was wrong.My eldest is now 13. She has never held my kids, never babysit them for even an hour. Has never come around for birthdays, but rest assured she gets pissed when we suggest we might not be able to make it to hers because of family commitments!My ex is close with her parents so when we were together, she did help out so we had a few nights away but as the kids have gotten older, I noticed that she distanced herself from them too.My wife and I don't have any help either. Her mum and her siblings all live interstate. Her dad lives in the US.My kids do occasionally ask to see their grandparents. It's just that they don't wish to be a part of my kids lives. Not having grandparents myself, I'm pissed off that I'm repeating the cycle and it's all completely out of my control.Not sure what the point of this was. I just felt like rambling. I'm up late. Everybody's asleep, My mum is bitching to me about shit I don't care about while thinking "Jeez, you don't care about my life..." so I have nothing but these thoughts to entertain me. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2tTBrKk