Wednesday, July 7, 2010
My Dysfunctional Family
Some people say they have a dysfunctional family ,but my family is the mother of all dysfunctional.Where do I begin I am a forty five year old woman that lives in a house with my 79 and 75 year old parents,my 49 year old severely depressed sister,a 27 year old niece, a 23 year old nephew who I have custody of due to he is disabled,a 5 year old great niece, and a 4 year old niece, so the final count is eight. We also have at least two to three of my nephew friends that eat,sleep,and shower at any given time, and a tattoo guy and his girl friend that uses my nephew's room as an underground tattoo parlor.Ops I guess its not underground any longer.Where do I start? Once there was a quiet little house and it had a empty room, first mistake. My sister called and said I just found out I'm pregnant and I'm moving in with you so mom and dad can take care of the baby while I work. Oh wait this is my severe depressed sister that at the time is forty six and already has three grown children, in which, I had custody of one of her kids, and my parents adopted one,and she sometimes raised the other one.The quiet little house has not been the same since. After the arrival of a beautiful little girl(she looks like her aunt)my sister fell deeper and deeper into a depressive state, and now I have a baby to take care of. Shortly after the baby was born my niece called and said she was getting a divorce and need a place to live. So in moved my niece and her one year old baby girl.After moving rooms around finding everyone someplace to sleep. I decided that my 23 year old nephew that is handicapped needed a place he could live in independently,but I could still see what he is doing,so I bought a building and put it on the side of the house.I added electric, heat, air conditioning,a microwave, and a refrigerator,and now he has his own little space to live in. Do you see how my life is going to be a little dysfunctional? Oh by the way did I mention my niece doesn't have a job nor does my nephew,but they have car payments and insurance,and need food,clothes, and my niece has a child!! As the year go by it is now four years later and I still have eight people living with me and still only have two of the eight working. Now my sister goes to work and then come homes takes a hand full of pills and goes to sleep.I have the best mother,'sometimes', she does do the laundry and she does cook most of the nights, at least she cooks for her and my dad if nothing else.One thing my mom does best is yell. She doesn't like anything to be out of its place and she doesn't understand why a 4 and 5 year old can't play with just one thing and why they make noise.Do see where I heading? Now I have a screaming neurotic 75 year old lady following the two little girls around yelling at them not to make a mess. Oh I forgot to tell you,we also have two dogs ,one is a rat terrier and every time the kids cries or someone yells he howls until it gets quiet.Just to remind you I now have two small children and a screaming old woman. Lets me tell you a little about my niece, she doesn't know how to talk quietly she thinks that if you yell you will get your point across better so she screams at her kid ,at her grandmother,at her brothers and of course her depressive mother who screams back at her. Remember the dog barks at crying and loud talking so I live with people screaming and a dog howling all day and night. By the way did I tell you that I'm a teacher and I'm taking graduate classes on line while all of this is going on. Some people at work ask me how I do it live in such dysfunction . The answer is god must have something special in mind for me or else I have made him very angry to make my life so dysfunctional. This is just the beginning follow along as the dysfunction continues you either have to laugh or someday just cry.Until next time have a great and wonderful day!