4
« on: July 30, 2015, 03:06:47 pm »
Well, let me preface this by saying that I am in no respect an expert in this, but I am the oldest of six. It took me about a decade to get up nerve enough to say that enough was enough. For some reason, my siblings either couldn't hold onto a job or they just couldn't afford to live on their measly earnings. They weren't all like that. In fact, the youngest of the lot, a sister, worked her way through school while supporting her children and their deadbeat father while he sat on his lazy butt playing video games and refusing to watch their children or help out in any way around the house. (When she finally booted him to the curb, it was a changing point in her life and I felt so proud.)
Anyway, back on topic: While I was helping the rest pay their bills -- while they had cable TV, a decent vehicle, went out to eat, etc, while I would be eating beans three meals a day and walking to work to save money, doing without a phone and electricity sometimes -- it slowly dawned on me that I wasn't doing them any favors by letting them remain immature. I decided that it was time they stood on their own two feet. It was a very difficult decision, because two of them had kids, but they needed to learn to be adults. They could make it on their own, they just never had to. While I kept close tabs on them (just in case) even though I was the last person in the world they wanted to ever see again, they managed to struggle through and learned that it wasn't that difficult. Not only are they fully capable of taking care of anything that life throws at them, but they are fully functioning and contributing members of society.
Now, I have a better relationship with them than I ever had previously.