I came home to unpack the night before the first day of 8th grade started. I had just spent a week with my dad before summer vacation came to an end. My mom called me downstairs to have a discussion with her and Ron, my step dad. I assumed it had something to do with Ron’s kids, Vanessa and Trey, moving in with us. But to my great surprise, they told me that they were getting a divorce and Ron would be moving out that night.
Those next couple weeks were kind of a blur. My mom was calling our relatives to let them know and trying to keep our lives together. One of those conversations I had listened in on and it wasn’t until then that I learned the truth- Ron had been cheating on my mom. My mom had started to spiral between depression, then slowing into partying and man hating. It was then that I started my identity as a caregiver because without a second thought I had taken care of my mom through that time.
During this time my mother struggled quite a bit with trying to stay positive. Most of the time I would wake up, get ready for school, go into my mom’s room to wake her up, then start walking to school. When she would get home a lot of times she would go upstairs, lay in bed, and play on her computer. I would generally try to find her some food and bring it up or I went upstairs and discussed with her what we wanted for dinner. I didn’t have a huge variety of the food that I made (due to the fact that I was 13) so most of the time we would eat tuna sandwiches or cereal.
Those next couple weeks were kind of a blur. My mom was calling our relatives to let them know and trying to keep our lives together. One of those conversations I had listened in on and it wasn’t until then that I learned the truth- Ron had been cheating on my mom. My mom had started to spiral between depression, then slowing into partying and man hating. It was then that I started my identity as a caregiver because without a second thought I had taken care of my mom through that time.
During this time my mother struggled quite a bit with trying to stay positive. Most of the time I would wake up, get ready for school, go into my mom’s room to wake her up, then start walking to school. When she would get home a lot of times she would go upstairs, lay in bed, and play on her computer. I would generally try to find her some food and bring it up or I went upstairs and discussed with her what we wanted for dinner. I didn’t have a huge variety of the food that I made (due to the fact that I was 13) so most of the time we would eat tuna sandwiches or cereal.