Living with Your Folks!!!

You know I swear people on Twitter use Direct Messages (DM) to hide. Well I had a follower to DM me and I guess he figured out that I still lived at home with my folks, Umm Yeah! That's not a secret. How do you think I know what my mother and grandmother are watching on TV? I'm not married or have children so, who do you think I am doing at that cooking for?

When I graduated from college, I didn't have a job lined up. So, I moved back home to live with my mother, my ailing 80-plus year old grandparents and my older brother who is severely mentally challenged and has cerebral palsy. It was temporary, I thought. Soon my choice became my family's blessing in disguise. My grandfather was dying. He was going to bathroom one morning and he fell. Luckily, I was there to get him up & call my mom & aunts at work to get him the hospital. My grandfather passed away a month later. I took the phone call from the hospital, had to tell my grandmother and call mom at work so she could round up the family. That was 2004. Oh yeah I cooked meals and Helped get my brother get cleaned and ready for the day since I was unemployed. Keyword is Helped. But now I was in charge of running a household because my grandmother became grief stricken and her health started taking a strange turn after the funeral. I cooked meals, organized Dr. appointments, meds, phone calls, mail, cleaned & dress my brother (imagine an adult with a toddler's mind that just happens to know you are the little sister) and did the bulk of the shopping. And that summer I started a business. So I was like a working mother without a husband.

Let's Skip to the Spring 2010, my mother's job had her working from home. She is weeks from retiring. My grandmother falls. We thought she was okay. Boy, were we wrong. That was the start of what later would be a 4 month long hospital and nursing rehab stay because before the summer ended she had to have her gall bladder removed and therapy on her legs. That November they sent her home with a wheelchair. My mother is now retired so there are two hands on deck. My grandmother can dress herself. But she still requires some of the same duties my brother needs. Lord, I love retirement.

I don't regret staying at home. It's not as hard as it seems. Other than the household chores, we live like roommates. I still have my business, go out on occasion with my friends, and go to church when I can. Our other family members help out, too. It's just my life and I live it.

So before you judge people for Staying Home with Their Folks, learn their story. Everyone is not just staying home because they don't want to grow up. Some of us are there because our Adult responsibilities different.  Different not trifling. Now, let me start dinner.  *smiling*

As Always, Talking to You in Adult Terms