I am familied out

Over the last week I have seen my parents not once not twice but four times and I am totally familied out.



Now don't get me wrong and certainly do not think I do not love my family. I do love them very much it's just that they are painfully annoying.



It might have something to do with the age difference (although my sister is only 3 years older than men, but it doesn't really count since she acts and thinks just like my almost 80 year old parents).



I cracked yesterday with them.



We were at a good Sydney restaurant overlooking the Harbour for lunch. A fantastic venue to kick back and relax eat drink and be merry.



But the service or lack thereof certainly meant hat the restaurant part was strained.



But my parents and sister were a nightmare. There was not one moment of respite for me, the whole time it was "Drew look at this", "Drew what do you think of this", Drew you should do this", "Drew why don't you like this", Drew Drew Drew fucking Drew!



Can they not just leave me alone for five minutes of peace and quiet and let me relax?



By the end of the three hours of lunch I was a nervous wreck.



I would liken it to having three four year olds, all competing for your attention. In the end when the one millionth irrelevant dig at me (and it was thinly veiled put downs) I snapped at my sister and told her to be quiet for two minutes.



But guess what she didn't even get that!



I am still stressed out from the lunch and their whole performance it was a fucking nightmare.



I have been through this scenario with them so many other times before and it drives me mad.



The problem lies in the totally disparate lives the boy live to my parents and sister. Their worldview is so much different than mine and looking back on my upbringing I could see the gap between our views on the world when I was an early teenager.



Interestingly in talking to my parents and sister there is no real understanding of world events (or in fact interest either). They focus on their immediate surroundings, people and environment and don't really bother with how the world works.



The only external topic of conversation yesterday was how an elephant killed a man, and even then it was bought back to my sister's fear of being squashed by an elephant (yes I am not kidding).



There was no understanding or knowledge of current events, even with the death of Bhutto yesterday. In fact I don't think my sister actually knew which country it happened in, and by her own words the Television didn't focus much on it anyway they were far more focused on the elephant story.



Yes I am probably being elitist and an intellectual snob, but my mother and father still believe they live in a world where people get promoted based on how long they have been at a company. My mother and sister constantly tell me that we both work too much and we should take 6 weeks off a year in holidays.



Part of the issue I have with my family is the lack of commonality between us now, and my sister is the worst. I can't tell my sister what goes on in our lives, about the friends or parties etc because she would go back and report everything back to my mother and father. So anything that does not fit in her world view would be scandalising and I would have my mother on the phone upset and in hysterics.



I suppose being school teachers (my parents are long since retired) they are used to a very very different life style and in their day when they were involved in 'business' it was quite different.



I love them but please can't they not make me the centre of attention when they see us? Can they not learn that silence is a wonderful thing and a lunch a nice restaurant on the harbour should be a relaxing time not an interrogation!



end rant

Labels: family, stress

8:40:00 AM