Today is my sister's 20th birthday and so far, our father has already forgotten to say anything to her. I'm in America and so Thanksgiving overshadowed the event with my family having one too many drinks for the occasion. This much is evident by their obnoxious laughter which is slowly driving me insane.
Anyway, my family has been cooking all day and my sister and I were more than happy to clean up. We left the dinner table before everyone else and went to the couch with the dogs and just waited while the rest of my family was gathered around the table still. When the time for cleaning came, there wasn't any, "Hey, can you two do the cleaning?" or anything that would sound like they were communicating to actual human beings, it was, "Where the hell are they?!"
I can't quite the specifics of their passive-aggressive bullshit as I got up from the couch since I was practically shaking with anger, but I remember asking what I could. No response. Ask again. Nothing. Three, four, five times. Still nothing. You mean you harassed me this much and can't even tell me where I can start, what I can do or how I can approach this? Alright. Helpful. Of course, my sister was roped into this and she made a joking comment about how it was her birthday in which my aunt (who doesn't live with us, by the way) made the most narcissistic and insulting comment back. This aunt is known for doing this since she seems to think she's God's Gift to the world and since my sister and I don't clean and cook like 'real women should' our mother has failed us. Yes, our mother has failed us, but not in that way, you sexist b*tch. I'm not a feminist, but I can see why this thinking can get under their skin because it did for me. Just because we're women we cook and clean? H'okay. Go back to the 1960s and tell me how those traditional values of protest and civil unrest work for you.
Okay, maybe I'm just being bitter as I know not all older folk are like this, but I have to mention that I'm bitter towards my family in general. I'm eighteen years old and I live three states away from my grandparents, my older sister, the aunt that I don't like, my mother, my stepfather who I refer to my 'father', and with hopes, my biological scumbag 'father' as well. I left home when I was seventeen years old because of the deep trauma that happened during my childhood and the bad blood that still runs from it. After finding my sister in my room upstairs, crying, I felt the urge to start a fight. Instead, I approached my grandmother about it and she seems fairly well-mannered about it and apologized, but I still feel bitter and irritated by the entire situation.
Honestly, I'll be moving away to Vermont in the next year or so and probably vanishing from my family after college, so I can't say it bothers me all too much. I did promise to myself earlier in the year that I'd leave my family on a good note so I will do the best that I can with that, but oops.
No promises.
