When I moved back home, my parents were both out traveling. While it's been nice to have my own space, much as things were when I lived in my own apartment, the trade-off is that I have to look after my little brother and be head of household this summer.
In two days, my mom is leaving again, this time for Da Lian, China. She's going to meet my dad, who has been in Taiwan visiting family since two days after my graduation. During dinner, she instructed me on replying to her Jury Duty summons for her, paying bills, watering the plants, and turning off the stove. While I munched on blueberries, she showed me where she kept the security deposit box key and living trust documents. While she jogged on the treadmill, I folded laundry and listened to her list emergency contacts that I could call.
As a kid, I thought it was fun when my parents were gone for a week (Canada), maybe two (Europe), perhaps four (Taiwan). It meant that my friends could come over and we could make a mess and be loud without feeling guilty. As I'm getting older and assuming more responsibilities, the more I dread these long absences.
Sure, I can take care of business at home pretty well, even though I'm in a fairly intensive program this summer. But it's my little brother who really drives me crazy (hey if you're reading this, I'm picking you up in half an hour).
When I say that I'm a soccer mom, I say it with amusement tinged with dread and dejection. It means that I have to wake up at 6:45am to drive my brother to class, get to class myself, make dinner for my brothers when I get home, park on the right side of the street so I don't get a street cleaning ticket, clean the lint out of the dyer, call my brother incessantly when he's out past when he said he was going to be (17 year olds, ehh), then pick him up wherever he is. At the end of the day, I do my homework and study and fulfill my hospital duties, have some quiet time, talk to a certain someone, and then go to bed in a timely fashion so I can repeat the cycle.
It's nice to know that I can run a household in my parents' extended absence and still maintain some (minimal) level of social functioning. This can be practice for the future, when I have a family of my own. I said when, and not if. So there.
But... I am only 22 years old. And I have the life of a single working teen (young adult) mother, who also goes to school. It is very, very sad.
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