Journal imroy's Journal: Do your parents bug you? 2
Do your parents bug you? Of course they do, it's their job. I thought mine were bad, but I feel really sorry for Natasha. My housemate's parents have been living with us since the beginning of the year. They're driving me nuts. They act like they own the place! Well, they do. But I think that's part of the problem. I've been living here for nearly 5 years and Tash for, I think, almost two more. We have a well-rehearsed system of who does what, what goes where, and what to look out for. It's not perfect, but it works well enough and we're used to it. They've upset this system.
Lets run down the complaints.
- Iggy, the father, has rearranged a lot of the kitchen. This started even before I came back from my long christmas/new year break. I came back to find that the cutlery drawer was now on the other side of the kitchen.
- Want to cook up some noodles? First lets play a game called "Where the f**k has he put the pot this time".
Hanging on the hooks next to the sink? no
In one of cupboards under the sink? no and no
In one of the high-up cupboards above the fridges? no, no, and no
Ah! oh course, this time it's the in the corner cupboard under the sink. - I don't know what he thinks the drying rack does, but he clearly thinks it does its job better on top of the cupboards. Or sometimes it's right next to the sink, where the plates and stuff can drip water on the bench.
- Oh, lets put the microwave oven in the middle of the kitchen bench. Power cords are obviously meant to be used to their maximum length. Plus, this way we create an awkward area on the end that's not big enough to do anything except put odds and ends, and a semi-awkward corner area where all the food preperation has to be done. Brilliant.
- Back in Febuary there was a "council pick-up day" - people put out all their big and old junk on the curb and some contract people come and take it away. Being the resourceful type, Iggy thought that some peoples' junk looked like stuff he'd want. No, it's not like he picked up a bunch of soiled matresses or a tramampoline, just to get in a Simpsons reference. He's using the stuff to improve the house.
- He's added a second door outside of the front door. No, not a fly screen. No, not a security screen either. As best as I can figure, it used to be someones cupboard door, or maybe a pantry door. It has closely-spaced slats which do let air in, which is good. But you can't see people through it, at least not from far away. When you get close you can look down and see people from the waist down, but that's all. It's kind of awkward. Tash went off when she got back from work to find this new addition to the house. And she has a good reason. It just doesn't look right. I reckon it's coming off pretty quick whenever her parents leave.
- He also found a pair(2) of security bars for the windows, which is a worry because there's at least eight windows on this place. And I do not want my view from my window obstructed by metal bars! I'll put up a real fight if he plans on putting them up. I do not want to feel like I'm in jail! This area is very safe. A few years back Tash and I went out to visit a friend and came back to find that we'd somehow left the front door open for a few hours. Nothing was taken. This area is downright boring in fact.
- Let's make a lot of noise and not worry about Ian trying to sleep! First I should explain this... There's a second door in my room, which leads into the lounge room. The lounge room is an obvious extension on the back of the house and this second door is now sealed off. I guess it once lead outside. My side of the door is pretty-much flush with the wall and there's a set of shelves hanging off it. Because of the double-brick construction of the house, the other side is deeply recessed into the wall. There is a simple set of shelves made in this space, but now-ex-boyfriend had a large shelf/cabinet thing in front of it. With him gone and shelves re-exposed, Iggy decided to turn it into some sort of cabinet using a glass door he obviously scavenged earlier.
Of course, he has to do this work around 9-10am while I'm still trying to sleep. Banging, hammering, drilling, rattling - lots of noise. He doesn't do anything in the evenings, just lazing about watching TV. Why couldn't he do it then? And when it came up in conversations, he'd just laugh like it was a huge joke! Thanks a lot. - While we're talking about noise, lets bring in the mother. My only problem with her is her regular screaming outbursts. Sometimes it's just one or two outbursts, sometimes the arguments last a while. But it occurs most days, and it only seems to be the mother that is speaking up. Since I don't know any cantonese, I don't know what they're talking about. Perhaps it's PMS or something, I don't know. But it seems to be mostly harmless in the long run. I've grown used to it.
Any way, I just had to get this off my chest. Anyone have good/bad/interesting stories about your parents or the parents of friends/neighbours/significant others?
Thank goodness I don't live with them anymore! (Score:2)
One time I came home from school to find that all the stuff I'd put on the outside of my door (posters, a stick-on copper plaque that said "Sara's Room," and some stickers) had been either taken down or obscured by this oogly objet d'art my father had made (without my permission) out of my print shelf (jobber shelf) where he'd removed all the little dividers (that form the compartments where the letters go), then replaced them with smoked glass. I told him it made my room look like a dive bar or something. He later took it down and hung it in his den, and gave me another, intact print shelf, which now hangs on my wall.
Then there were all the times when my mother would come into my room and start compulsively reading/tidying the papers on my desk. To this day, I get jittery when someone starts "tidying" things in my space.
Now they just do things like badmouth me constantly to my face ("I don't know why you're still working that job when you could do so much better..." Oh, really?!) then every time I meet some friend of theirs somewhere, the friends say, "Oh, your parents are so proud of you! They talk about you all the time!"
They also do things like blame me for stuff that isn't my fault -- "I don't want to get any more rude phone calls from the bank because you messed up!" "But the bank messed up!" "Don't let it happen again.", criticise how my apartment looks, and a host of other annoying behaviours.
On the other hand, I feel your pain. I lived with roommates who did all that and ripped me off for about $700 over 8 months or so...
Opportunity?? (Score:2)