While my parent-teenager issue is still about stuff like curfew, music being too loud, and why I have to eat a vegetable AND salad with dinner, it is a bit more complicated then just that. I have a step-dad.
When I was six years old, my mom married Donald McLaren. In the months between when they met and when they got married, he went out of his way to buy my sister and I gifts, ice cream, and take my mom, my sister and myself on excursions such as camping up north. Soon after they got married I started to notice that a lot of things were changing in my life. On the up side, we were putting a large addition on our house, but on the other hand many new rules were put in place. As a young adult I realize that my opinion on rules is highly biased, but life in my house became more difficult.
Most self-help sources and professionals will tell you that life with a step-parent gets easier with time, as you get to know them and get used to them. It has been eleven years and this is not true in my family. The gifts, treats and family field trips came to a halt about a year after they were married. And while I know he has good intentions, I try to stay out of Don's way as much as possible. As do most of my friends when they are here, which is rarely.
The story "Saturday Climbing" can be related to my problems at home by how Barry, as a father, is trying to deal with his negative relationship with his daughter. More specifically the fact that he tries to find an activity that they can do together to get to know each other again. Don has tried to do this, he was the one who insisted to teach me how to drive. This was a great idea, in theory. I say this because I found that I just ended up getting more and more frustrated every time I was driving with him because of his lack of patience and short temper. I started just putting off our driving sessions as long as possible or sneaking in lessons with my mom.
I know that I am part of the problem. I understand that I can be hard to deal with and I mirror emotions when they are aimed towards me. For example when someone is being passive aggressive, I tend to throw it right back even though that is not the most mature thing to do. I need to put more effort into forming a relationship with this stand-in parent and possibly stop hiding in my bedroom every day after 5:43 pm.
Some people will understand my problem perfectly. Some people will think that I am being selfish and not respective of Don. But no one can really understand my situation unless they are me.
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