Role Reversal (??)

Although, I was ecstatic to have my parents at home, but now it feels like my grandchildren are visiting.

I imagined I would once again feel like when I was 25 –carefree, lazy bum, tantrum thrower.

But I realise how things change when you are accustomed to fighting your own battles. You feel responsible for EVERYTHING and you accept that as the way of life. It becomes hard to distinguish between ‘care’ and ‘interference’ (for which I will have to write another post!)

Anyhow, I realised the whole ‘grandchildren’ bit when my voice echoed back:

“Please look through the fisheye before you open the door to anyone.”

I shouted this to Mum as I was hurriedly leaving for office and it sort of reverberated through the corridor.

All of the following gushed to my brains from remote corners:

I realised how I parental I have become. I constantly worry about:

• Whether they are eating properly
• Whether they will make it to the airport on time
• Will they board the flight safely
• Whether they will get a taxi to the house
• Will the be able to handle the taxi vendors ripping people off their money
• Will they be able to find my house
• Will they figure out the way around the apartment

I also have been doing other parental things such as:

• Stacking up the house with food and everything like a pack of hungry children are going to raid the house.
• Getting all medicines ready
• Removing all junk food from the fridge
• Trying to work out how to cover the sharp corners of objects around the house (like the corners of my bed which have injured me quite brutally in the past.) – to make it worse, I realise this is called ‘child-proofing’!
• Giving rapid and DETAILED instructions about anything and everything. The details of the explanation were such that I could have been talking to a 5-year old.
  Sample

“Mumma, please don’t leave ANY door-window open after dark because otherwise the mosquitoes will completely raid this place and in case you do, please switch on the ALL-OUT.

If that doesn’t work, spray this (points to Baygon)…spray it in the corners (demonstrates spraying) and shut all the doors for at least half an hour.

Please don’t be inside the room when you have sprayed this. ..and don’t forget to wash your hands after using Baygon. You may feel that your hands are clean but Baygon is Poison…….”)

And a few more things:

• My parents ask me when they want to go somewhere
• They take my advice on buying anything
• I drive them everywhere in the town
• I worry about my dad driving (he has been driving for the past 25 years as opposed to me just less than 2 years – on and off)
• I sort of… sometimes…. scold them! :-

It’s quite ridiculous when I think about it… these are the people who took me around the whole country and fed me and taught me all I know about taking care of myself and a house (apart from giving me birth and raising me for a good 25 years!)

Hmm? How much more weirder is life going to get? **SIGH!**