caerula's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the saga of bubbles I am so incredibly angry this morning that I don't even know where to start. I thought perhaps I would cool down over night but I did not. This anger it focused on my cousin T and her husband R, parents of the Diva and Bubbles. These are people who tried for nearly ten years to have kids, and finally adopted the Diva in 1993, and Bubbles in 1996, both as newborns. You would think they would be appreciative of the miracles that allowed them to have these children. Instead they take every possible opportunity to foist them off on other people so they don't have to take the responsibility for it. I don't have space enough to go into all the really annoying things about this family. But here's what I'm fuming about today: Our grandma, my dad's mom, is really rather sick. She hardly admits if, of course, but she can't get around very well, and has heart problems for which she takes a ton of medicine and she sleeps almost all day. Plus she's 80 years old. And she's an incredible packrat; her house, where she lives with my aunt (my dad's sister) would be a fire hazard and a pit if it weren't for Auntie; one of those houses you see on the news that get condemned because there's so much shit everywhere that it couldn't possibly ever be cleaned up. It's pretty bad as it is, bad enough that BB and I aren't comfortable with YB going over there, and my other cousins, T's brother S and his wife, won't let their kids go over by themselves even though they live right around the corner. T has no such compunctions. Her mom Auntie keeps her kids all the time, and if Auntie's busy, Grandma keeps them. This is a woman who can't take care of herself, and they have her keeping a demanding 7 year old and a very active 4 year old. Of course she's thrilled; she gets mad at us for not bringing the other great-grandkids over often enough, and holds up to us that she gets to keep T's kids, like T is a better grandchild for putting her kids in danger at Grandma's house. Auntie left last night for a three-week trip to Great Britain. T and R took the Diva up to a week-long camp in Fenton, and then came back and apparently left Bubbles at Grandma's where she is going to stay until TUESDAY NIGHT. Apparently their baby-sitter is on vacation this week as well. Despite the fact that they live 10 minutes away, and T's work schedule is supposed to be flexible, they are going to leave Bubbles at Grandma's tonight because they'd get home just too late to pick her up and then have to bring her back out Tuesday morning. This is typical, but it gets worse. Grandma fell on Saturday, and thinks she may have broken some ribs. She can barely move, but of course she refuses to go to the doctor. And T KNOWS this, and still left her 4 year old there. Dad went by last night to check on them, and found 3 or 4 prescription drug bottles in the kitchen floor, where they'd fallen off the table. Grandma said she knew they were there, but couldn't bend down and pick them up. This of course brings to mind several horrid scenarios: 1. Bubbles finds the prescription bottles and decides to play doctor, and takes the blood thinner and all the other junk Grandma takes, and gets really sick, whereupon Grandma can't take her to the hospital because she can barely move, never mind drive. 2. Bubbles falls and/or somehow hurts herself, with all the crap that's scattered around. Grandma can't pick her up. See above. 3. Grandma falls again, and can't get up. Bubbles isn't old enough to know what to do, and probably has never been taught to dial 911 at all. So now I feel obligated to go by on my way home from work and check on them, since T and R don't seem to be concerned. If I go over there and Grandma can't get up, or if she's sleeping like she usually is in the middle of the day, I'm taking that child home with me and I don't care who gets pissed about it. I went by last night on my way home from Mom and Dad's and it was about 10 pm; they were both up, sitting around in their underwear with the front door wide open. Grandma's fairly senile anyway, and is always forgetting to lock the door; she lives in a fairly safe suburban neighborhood, but you just never know. I'm just SO angry at T. She's something of an airhead, but this just shows such an absolute lack of common sense and concern for her child. Bubbles gets ignored most of the time anyway, since the Diva demands so much attention and can't stand for her sister to get any, but this is ridiculous. What makes it worse is I know it's because T and R wanted the time to themselves; their marriage was on the rocks last year and now that they are "rediscovering" their relationship it seems all they want to do is shag each other constantly, and then talk about it to whoever will listen. T even got R's name tattooed on her butt for his birthday this year. Aargh. It's all well and good that they are so happy now, but you can't use that as an excuse to ignore your children. I'd like some time alone with BB, too, but we don't push YB off on incapable relatives for days at a time to get it -- except when the court orders us too, but that's a different story. 7:46 a.m. - 2001-07-02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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