It’s the time of the year everyone begins the rush to get home to be with family. I’ve often heard years prior people speak of how wonderful it is to get home. It’s then followed by more subtle fears. Fears of all the demands family places on an individual.
For example, you might be the type who’s never really decided on a career. You wanted to explore what was out there. At the beginning your parents considered it a phase that you’ll get through. It was something that every person should experience in a lifetime. With each passing year, it became less a phase and more of a permanent fixture in your life as seen through your parents’ eyes. Each passing Thanksgiving and Christmas, your parents begin to feel you’ve not really taken your life seriously. They take every opportunity to speak to you about it. With every conversation brought up at the dinner table, you feel more closed off by their insistence. You feel the situation to be unjust. It’s your life and how you live it should be left up to you.
I felt this way. The situation just described wasn’t my exact experience, but the feeling engendered is spot on early in my adult life. There are so many demands when one is part of a collective known as a Family. I dare risk making a sweeping generality and say that every one of us will at some point experience it.
It took many years and I’ve realized that as unfair as it was and is, it was no more difficult for my parents and their forebears. Just because you feels oppressed doesn’t mean it negates your responsibilities. We all have them and they have to be dealt with. Even when you ignore your responsibility, it doesn’t mean that it’s gone away. You’ve just taken that responsibility that was yours and gave it away. You can be sure that someone else who has no vested interest in a task or responsibility will often handle it in a way you will definitely not like or agree with.