When you're a kid your parents make the plan and you follow it. That's just how its done if you want to live peacefully under their roof. When you become an adult you can make your own plan and the folks who live with you simply follow it. That's how its done IF you're a parent taking care of your children. That is not how it goes when you're taking care of a parent. They've laid down the law for so many years, that it is downright impossible to make rules they'll follow.
Your first two decades on the planet are spent listening to your parents. Can someone tell me how to get them to fall in line when the roles change (http://www.careforagingparents.com/)? After raising me and teaching for over 40 years, my mother is accustomed to giving orders. But when it comes to taking orders... let's just say that mutiny is Wheezy's speciality.
The doctor warns against doing any bending while her back is healing (http://www.spinalfusionalternative.com/spinal_fusion_recovery). I look out the window and catch her bending down to pick up the dog's poop. Yes, we have a pooper scooper. Yes, I've told her to leave it and I'll get it. She says she has complained so much about neighbors leaving their dog droppings in our yard that she would be ashamed if one of them caught her walking away from one of our dog's piles. She is also on her own agenda when it comes to bending while cooking and doing laundry. Her response to my request that she not try to navigate the basement stairs when I'm not home? With an eye roll and what can best be described as a half sigh/half growl noise I hear, "oh my God."
The household budget? If she catches me cutting when she thinks I should be spending her first threat is to stop getting her hair done. Patting her curls back into place, she wonders aloud how long before her hair starts looking like "picky birds and guts." I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I think the modern-day translation is "hot mess." When she wants to go for the guilt jugular she vows to save hundreds of dollars each month by not taking her heart and blood pressure medications so we can afford the things she wants to do.
If you think it's tough to keep a toddler in line, then imagine trying to get a willful senior citizen to follow your directions. Hellllllp! I don't think the Super Nanny (www.supernanny.com) works with old folks so I need a Granny Whisperer quick!
2 comments:
I can sympathize! My mother moved in with us last October and just got on her feet and moved out in February. So I had her, trying to parent me and telling me about parenting my 15 month old AND I'm enormously pregnant. I was quickly turning into a story on Nancy Grace. Those were dark dark days in our house. Haha! Wishing you luck and a good day today!
Yeah my Granny used to say... Once and Adult TWICE a child. I would say this applies here. I know my folk dont heed any of my advice either but I pick up the pieces when and where necessary.
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