I am sick of hearing this type of talk from my Step-Dad.
Who he is (some background information):
He is a total old-fashioned conservative. He grew up subordinate to the Baptist regime and had little money. Consequently, his views of raising a "man", as he calls it, are distorted. He is a huge fan of tough love, natural consequences, harsh discipline, and independence. He thinks he knows everything and is always right. I've never met someone more stubborn or arrogant. In addition, he may have you believe he is a psychologist or a political scientist. One positive thing I can say is that sometimes, when I'm in the right mood, he can prove to be entertaining; his political lectures and cognitive analysis' are rather amusing at such times. The rest of the time listening to him talk is down-right torture; it makes you wish you were deaf. As you might suspect, he and I don't get along very well. The fact that he is a confrontational kind of person doesn't help. Anyways, that should be enough of a background.
The Story:
At the time of the crime (tonight), I was in the entry way, which doubles as a laundry room. I needed to do a load of laundry. Like I always do, I got side tracked talking and doing who knows what. Anyways, I started walking out of the laundry room to go take a shower because I had forgotten that I was doing laundry. My mom stopped me and said "The detergent is right here". I was like "Oh, woops, I forgot that I was doing laundry. Thanks." Of course, my step-dad then had to butt in and say "He's a big boy" followed with something to the effect of "He'll figure it out", which is his way of telling my mom not to help me.
My thoughts on this:
It’s not as if I don't know how to do laundry. I know the reason he intervened is because he thinks I should be extremely independent since I'm off to college this fall. His logic is extremely ridiculous. First of all, for the majority of peoples’ lives they live with someone, which is how it will probably be for me, too. In a future scenario, the person saying “The detergent is right here” could have been a friend, roommate, girlfriend, or wife. The idea of total independence is irrational to me. I am not the type of person to seclude myself into the dark, lonely corner of society. Therefore, it is likely someone will be there to help me out sometimes in my life. Notice, I didn’t say all of the time, but, yes, sometimes people help people. What a novel idea, only if my step-dad knew…
Regardless of all the aforementioned, the most frustrating thing of it all is that he is such a hypocrite. I am more independent than he is. The next time my mom does anything for him I am going to have a hard time not saying "He's a big boy". In regards to my step-dad, making a list of what my mom doesn't do would be quicker than making one of what she does do for him.
The Conclusion:
To keep peace and sanity in the house, I am going to try and avoid confrontation with him because it’s not worth the fight. It’s just that sometimes he makes me want to scream. In the end, all of this just makes me look forward to college that much more. As much as I love my mother, getting away from him will be nice. Only six more months...
