For eighteen years I lived with my parents and they did everything for me.
I was spoiled and all I was responsible for was cleaning my room.
If the laundry was in the laundry room, mom was blissful. When I went away to college, I got a little more independence, although I still had mom and dad to turn to for anything. I took my laundry home to them on the weekends, and brought back clean clothes when I went back to school with me. When I graduated, I was hastily thrust into the real world and realized I was on my own. I blamed mom and dad for not forcing me to have independence and for my lack of responsibility. I then realized I was the one who depended on them, even though they sent me to a university that was half a state away. I had to figure out for myself that life wasn’t typically going to be simple. I realized that I wasn’t prepared for life like I thought I was. I didn’t know what to do with a house when I got my own for the first time. I called dad and asked him if he would walk me through how to change the air filter in the air conditioner unit. He started to laugh and went on a memory trip when he tried to teach me how to change a filter as a teenager. He told me how to change the air filter and he reminded me that I also had to have the HVAC business do regular servicing on the air conditioner and the oil furnace. I groaned and asked if he could possibly remind me to call the HVAC business? He instructed me to write it down on the calendar or to set a reminder in my cell phone. I was on my own now.