My husband and I had a wonderful Easter weekend planned. We were going to drive to Portland, Oregon and spend four days in the apartment where my husband stays when he works there about ten days out of the month. I was excited to be able to see his work place there and the new apartment, see the sites of the city and shop. Our sixteen year old son, Marc said he was keen to join us which was great because right now we don’t leave him overnight without a parent at home. My eighteen year old daughter was going to be home but she didn’t want the responsibility of ensuring he came home on time or having to send home anyone who might arrive at the door expecting there to be a party. We didn’t want to put that on her either.
Marc works at McDonald’s part time. He didn’t book the time off so it was his responsibility to get someone to replace him while we were away. Need I give all the details? At the eleventh hour he was on the phone trying to get someone to work for him but of course no one was available, or so he said. It was clear he had decided driving down to Portland with Mom and Dad wasn’t going to be much fun. We had no choice but to cancel our plans because leaving him home was simply not an option. I was furious. Both my husband and I were really looking forward to the time off.
Marc basically had hijacked our plans so there had to be a consequence. He worked for a large part of the weekend but we decided he was not going out Saturday night. We made it clear we were not happy. There seemed to be a tinge of guilt because several times he came up us with suggestions of things we might want to do on the weekend since our plans were cancelled.
Our eighteen year old daughter went through this stage of being completely self-absorbed and the only thing that mattered was being with her friends. We’ve all been there. Thank God it doesn’t last.
