Parental Predicament

So, I find myself in a rather bizarre situation at the moment - one in which I haven't been before.

I haven't spoken to my parents in two weeks. Actually, two weeks and a day to be precise. There have been heated emails exchanged however those have also ceased. (I didn't receive a reply to my last email, which I thought was relatively diplomatic. Guess I thought wrong).

Thing is, I never expected to be in this position. I never expected to get to a breaking point with my own parents where I decided I finally had to put my foot down about something and hold my ground. (Admittedly, I didn't exactly approach this issue in the most graceful manner imaginable, but like I said, I hit a breaking point).

Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that for quite some time, years in fact, John and I have dreaded going over to the parents' place for dinner.

This is NOT to say that we don't like or love them - but rather that when we visit, we've found them to be in a state that is, more often than not, very tense, stressed and, well... unpleasant. I do a lot of tongue biting during these outings, and John does everything in his power to keep me from saying something that I might regret later.

I know I'm being incredibly vague here, and I'm probably being vague out of paranoia that they'll read this, even though I'm not even sure they know it exists, and even though only one of them knows how to use a computer, but nevertheless... PARANOID.

That being said, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. Part of me has enjoyed what has essentially been a vacation from my parents. During this time, John and I also, (coincidentally), started a detoxification diet - and have literally eliminated every single "bad" thing imaginable from our diets including caffeine, alcohol, carbs, (other than fruit and veggies), soy, dairy, corn, gluten, nuts and everything/anything artificial and/or processed. It has literally and figuratively been a 'cleansing' of sorts... ( and though I despise that word, it is quite appropriate right now). The other part of me hates that I'm not speaking to my parents. I hate how they think of me right now - I don't really feel the insults they've hurled at me have been fair or deserved, (particularly as I'm the one who expressed a grievance - a major anomaly - in the first place), and I hate that I suspect that they've got the same attitude as me right now... that being that there's no way in hell they're gonna extend an olive branch here - and neither am I.

Yet of course, that part of me that has always been the family peacekeeper is literally SCREAMING at me saying, "Leigh - this is not how you behave. Be the bigger person... reach out to them and at the very least, call a truce."

Well, I've been ignoring those screams - which is a huge break from the norm for me. I really, truly feel that I'm completely justified in keeping my foot down here, for once.

So, what does this have to do with having kids? Well, certainly, it makes me think about how I'd feel if I were the parent in this particular situation and admittedly, I think it would suck big time... but I do feel that as the parent, I would go out of my way to resolve this, and sadly, I'm just not getting that from either of mine.



***Note: The above image has nothing to do with the content of this blog. I just thought it was amusing that I image googled "angry parents" and this came up. I quite like this drawing. Who wouldn't want a pet armadillo? I think I might also have to revisit the website I found it on, www.therevisionaries.com, and hope that they don't sue me for posting it. Also, it appears the website is run by a group of children's book writers... at least one of whom appears to be a bestselling children's book author. Must investigate.