Couldn't help it

Okay, I'll try not to do this too much, but I just found this website and I couldn't resist. Besides my child feels like a drummer right now, so I'm sure he's coordinated enough to drive already lol

Being the oldest

is not easy at all.

I'm not going to pretend that i wasn't a parentified child in every sense of the word, from sharing in adult responsibilities to being a disciplinarian to being a mediator between my parents (which is quite dysfunctional-i think we could all agree). I think it happens when you're the oldest and your mother is only barely 16 years older than you. I used to joke around and say that my mom and I grew up together, but the sad part is that it's not really a joke, nor is it a lie. My mom and I grew up together, maybe in some ways, this was good. I learned to be quite independent, yet family oriented, a multi tasker, yet focused. And in some ways, it was bad, I was supposed to be a little girl, not a small adult and when it came time to go to college, the transition was harder because I thought i was doing something wrong, not because I would just miss my family like most people. I thought i was disappointing everyone, even when i knew they were proud, but who was going to make sure mom and dad's fights weren't too outrageous? Who was going to make sure my sisters weren't dating boys that were scuzz buckets? Were my brothers ever doing their hw or had the play station sucked their brains out? What if we couldn't pay the light...again? No meat, for a month? Would my sisters chip in for bills and groceries? Not what I wanted to think about starting my college freshmen year, yet I wouldn't change the experience if I could. It's me or at least it was.

For a few years now, I've slowly but surely broken out of that mold, slowly, but surely, given my family back to its rightful leaders (as flawed and as beautiful as they may be)-my parents. My mom even eventually told me that she didn't realize how much i did for my family and how much more she needed to do as a mother until i went to school and she realized that my siblings wanted to talk to me more than her. Mind you, my mother is a beautiful person, who i can honestly say was never part of my abusive past, actively at least. But she just has her flaws as we all do and so i appreciated this admission more than words could say. I think that conversation helped my transition along, though I realize today it's not quite over.

My younger sister (i have two after me and then two brothers-we are 22, 19, 18, 14, and 10)-so the 19 year old (who will be 20 in October) has decided to join the Navy. That's right, drop out of college where she was studying education and then biomolecular sciences, and then became undecided has signed up to be a 'sailor chick'. I could try to find the right terms, but it doesn't really matter in the context. She told me of this decision about two weeks ago and boy, did i blow my top for a million and one reasons. Funny enough, it was not long before i realized that out of everyone in my family, i was once again, angrier, more frustrated, and confused than anyone else. Everyone else had their concerns (or not), but no one seemed to be taking it as badly. And then my boyfriend, who alternates between being my wise, perfect other half to being someone i could potentially go to jail for killing (mildly kidding), simply said to me, "Maybe this is exactly what your sister needs, you don't know, you don't know everything, some people might think your life choices are stupid and you still make them".

And i lost all the air in my argument...just like that...gone. And funny enough, when she told me today that she had taken her physical already, I simply said, "Are you sure this is what you want to do?" and when she told me yes, I just supported her. I reiterated my concerns, but listened to her thoughts and let her know that I was proud of her and supported her. We'll see how this goes, but I'll just say that it's not just my sis who's growing up, I am too, and I feel better about it.

I guess it was only a matter of time

before someone said, "if it wasn't for your situation, you'd be perfect for this job". By situation, he means pregnancy, by perfect he means...not pregnant, by he i mean late middle age, white, wealthy man who has never feared missing an opportunity because of maternity leave. Based on technicalities, I can't say he's wrong, it is hard to begin a job and then leave one for a couple of months, but I really, really, really didn't want to have anyone say anything remotely close to "you can't have this job because you're pregnant", especially when he says afterwards, "i mean, it has nothing to do with anything substantive because I've only heard excellent things about you" (in my part time work for the organization he means). I don't regret getting pregnant, i'm actually quite excited, and a little more focused than usual interestingly enough, but I guess as all (or most) first time mothers, I just didn't anticipate certain things. Maybe my timing wasn't as good as I had initially thought, but I didn't want to just start a job and then get pregnant and I didn't want to wait two more years or something, so as Katt Williams would say, "I made a pimp decision".

But honestly i feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, my current part time job was really only a contract position scheduled to end July 1st, which would have been perfect if not for my, what did he call it? Situation. Yeah. And my boss would like me to stay on for another year, but there has to be funding (which may or may not exist) and the truth is i'm not so sure it's what i want to do for another year and i don't want to settle just because i have a child. Children don't cripple your career trajectory, they just force you to be quite the salesman, convincing people you are worth a certain position, salary, rain showers of praise, etc. But i'm a social worker, not a salesman, and sometimes i'm tired of the pitch...