I'm with Pucky, I haven't even posted any stories and I feel a panic attack coming on. My sister, two nieces and husband are coming to visit for a week at the end of the month I'm sure it will be great fun. We're going to see my mom in San Diego on Friday. Fortunately, we have lots of friends in San Diego. I don't mind visiting an hour or two at a time in a neutral location.
Recently my mom called me to ask for some advice. A neighbor called CPS on my sister (I only have the one). I don't know the exact reason why, but I think the top two would be enough. They live in a house that could easily be on the show Hoarders. Their yard is littered with junk, rusted out cars, car parts snow mobiles and trash. My sister home schools my two nieces (9 and 4) which means they hang out all day and watch cartoons with mom on the couch and eat junk food.
My mom called to ask me advice before she talked to my sister. They fight all the time, and ever since I was little I've been the mediator. It's not healthy, it doesn't work and I've tried to stay out of their f'ed up relationship for years. Most of the time I can, but once in awhile I get sucked back in.
Samantha my sister's oldest refused to clean her room. I actually don't blame the kid. My sister has no leg to stand on. If I were her, I would refuse to clean my room too citing the cat poop filled litter boxes, the mounds of food encrusted dishes in the sink and in various places around the house and the mountains of clothes that you have to wade through to get from room to room. But, she's nine, so she gets belligerent, maybe slams a door and refuses to do it.
My mom wanted to know if she should call my sister and tell her to tell Samantha that if she didn't clean her room that the CPS people were going to take her away and she would never see her family again.
I was silent for a minute thinking that she was joking. Really? I quickly composed myself, because I could tell she was coming from a place of seriousness. And asked her to talk about her reasoning a little more. She said, "well, remember when you were little, probably the same age as Samantha you said you were going to run away. You were serious and I was worried that you were going to do it. So I said, that if you ran away that they (CPS) would take you away (we had dealings with them before) and put you in an orphanage and then you would never be able to come home or see us again."
I was really shocked. I'm not saying that lightly. Floored really. I kept composure and told her that it probably wasn't a good idea to tell my sister that. It would just cause a fight even if her intentions were good. Because in a seriously fucked up way, in her mind, they were.
No wonder I deal with panic attacks and wild mood swings. How in the world could my tiny little brain soup congeal into a properly functioning neural net with those kind of shenanigans going on.
*sigh*