Family Annoyances

Posted by Isabel | Filed under Family

It never seems to fail that when I’m having a good, it gets ruined by one of my family members. Today, I woke up and got ready to grab some breakfast and catch a movie with my friend Irene. We had a good time at breakfast and we watched Four Christmases which made us laugh til our bellys ached. However, as I got home, my sister Jean was calling me and asking me questions I can’t answer. For example, she called me to ask if my sister Elle was still planning on having my nieces stay over tonight. Elle gave her the green light on Wednesday and since that was only two days ago, I assume everthing will go as planned. And that’s exactly what I told her. However, Jean could tell I was somewhat (okay … really) annoyed and in turn, threw a mini pitty party for herself.

She does this to me all the time and wants me to feel sorry for her because … well, to sum it up … she has to raise her children. She choose to be a Mom and I’m sick of her complaining. Trust me, I know it gets hard and I try to help her out as much as I can before I self-destruct from the stress she causes me. It’s hard to witness some of the parenting methods she uses with my nieces, since I often feel she is acting more like a child than they are. It rocks me to the core and for my own sanity, I have to ignore it or ignore her. This is why I get annoyed when she disrupts my perfectly good day to pick a fight and (in some weird way) try to gain my sympathy. It’s exhausting putting out her little fires and trying to make her feel better.

I can only imagine how mean I sound, but is it wrong that I don’t want to deal with these things. I’m 24 years old and I have plenty of my own problems to deal with. My brother-in-law is also not one to give her the support she needs, so naturally, she calls on her family to help her. I’m glad she does, but now she calls on us before asking or talking with him. She knows we will always be there because her husband won’t grow up and be a man to help raise his kids. I didn’t choose to be parent, yet I am always having “parental” conversations with her. So, when I call her out and tell her to ask her husband for help, she gets quiet and acts like she has no choice in the matter. What she doesn’t realize is that she is choosing not to ask her husband for assistance. I’m not sure why doesn’t ask for his help, but whatever the reasons may be (she doesn’t want to start an argument or she puts him first before the kids), I don’t want to fill his shoes. I want to be the fun Auntie that doesn’t end up being bitter by the situation and then takes it out on her nieces. I bet I’m not making any sense at all, but I can’t express my frustration enough.

I do want to help her more and I pray the Lord will give me patience to do so. I pray He will take away my worries and protect my nieces from any emotional stress we may cause them. It’s times like this that remind me of the reasons why I don’t want to have kids. Don’t get me wrong, I love my nieces and I truly enjoy being around kids (I’m studying to be an elementary teacher), but as parents, we can really mess up our kids. I’ve never wanted that responsibility and I definitely don’t want it now with my nieces.

Read more ... | Comments (0) | December 12, 2008

Just a minute …

Posted by Isabel | Filed under Site

Doing some major updates. I will back in just a minute!

Read more ... | Comments (0) | December 9, 2008