Ever been "Used" for being TOO nice?
Sometimes I feel like I should not ‘vent’ or complain about things too much because I have many blessings to be thankful for. I try to ‘choose my battles.’
I have always been the type of mom who lets things roll off my back. I have always been a mom who has allowed my children to have their friends over for a night or two with the attitude of making all of my kids friends feel welcome at my home. Sometimes, in fact most of the time I have not even met the parents of my kids’ friends. I have been so laid back that my oldest son, Jonathan (who is 16) often just assumes it is okay to invite his friends to stay the night (without even asking me or my husband’s permission.) That has been okay, due to the fact that all of my son’s friends still live in Molalla, the town we moved from a year and a half ago. We live twenty minutes away……way out in thecountry, so I have been pretty lenient in allowing my son’s pals to shack uphere since we do live out in the middle of nowhere and most of JT’s friends don’t have their driver’s licenses yet and gas prices are outrageous (needless to say.)
But I am getting a little outraged. I feel like I am being completely used by the parents of these teens. Fact is, right now, we are broke. We can barely feed our own four children sometimes.
BUT when the kid is ‘placed in MY care, and the parents have not even asked me if that is okay in the first place…..and housed another person’s child without even a ‘Thank you.’ AND they have ZERO intention of picking up their child, and so it becomes MY responsibility to take the kid home (20 miles away) It gets RIDICULOUS. Not only have we fed, entertained and sheltered these people’s kids, but now we must spend our own gas money that we do not have in the first place to take that kid home? I haven’t complained much up until this summer, because I know that there is a scripture, "If Ye loveth me, Feed My Sheep." And I have always heeded that, and taken it to mean that we should always love others and feed them, no matter what, because everyone is a child of God. BUT……… I must vent now and say that I am actually appalled at the parents of some of these kids. It seems as though we are being used for FREE ‘babysitters.’ FREE entertainment, FREE meal proiders and FREE transportation by the parents.
I would NEVER send my kid to another’s home without at least making certain it is okay with the parents and that my kid brings money so that somebody else does not have to provide EVERYTHING for my child. I DO NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE of other people like that, and I just can’t allow anyone to do it to my family anymore! Sometimes my ‘niceness’ comes back to bite me in the butt!