Back To Normal?

So, my parents departed moments ago.  Pugly is back in doggy daycare.  My space and my routine are theoretically my own again, even though it’s an entirely new space that isn’t quite sorted out yet which requires developing something of a new routine.

Back to semi-normal, maybe, I guess.

I love my parents.  I do.  Granted we have some issues.  Some conflicting quirks.  I think they still see me as twelve a lot of the time.  A twelve year old buying her own house, having her own job, trying to live her own life.  So they treat me like a twelve year old and tell me what to do and how to do things and what I need to do rather than waiting to see what my adult self does on my own.  They don’t seem to wait to see if what they’ve taught me these last 35½ years has stuck — you know, like good manners, money sense, what I should eat.  I tried to discuss this with my mother this visit and I think she finally got it maybe.  At the very least she apologized for arriving on the scene of my move into my house and sort of taking charge.  She told me that now that they’re going, I can finally put everything the way I want.

The funny thing is that it’s the small things that have been the most annoying — the fact that neither of them respects the fact that I’ve asked them to always put the toilet seat down because my cats will drink out of the bowl or that my mother can’t seem to put the coffee and it’s supplies back in the same place twice, let alone where it belongs or that my father insists on sitting in my spot on the sofa and watching the news from 5pm to 7pm and won’t allow anyone to speak during that time.  It annoys me that my mother will tell me to do something rather than ask and then once I start doing it either she or my father with call me from another room to go there to see or do something in there.  This is why dinner was so late two nights in a row.

But I’ve appreciated all of their help and generosity.  I have.  My mother made new curtains for the living room and took up the sheers in the music room/study.    My father taught me how to change a two-prong wall receptacle to a three-prong grounded wall receptacle  (only three more rooms to convert!).  He also hung curtain rods, changed my thermostat, helped me to hang some Closet Maid bookshelves in the closet and so much more.

Honestly, I couldn’t have gotten this much done without them and I’ve gotten tons of good advice.

But it’ll be nice to have some alone time in my new house, a chance to put things where I want, sit where I want, rest for an evening if I want, go to bed at 8pm if I want.

I’ve also discovered that it’s easier to be neat if it’s just you and the pets.

tags: alone time, little red house

One comment

1. on December 4, 2006 at 3:48 pm

   Tod said:

   In my experience this will NEVER change. I think all parents are conditioned to behave this way! I have older sisters and brothers and they still treat me like a kid too!

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