Wondering and hurting

[Aeryn]

Life does tend to throw curve balls at us. My mother recently passed away and now my father, who has Alzheimer's, is living in my dining room. Add three of my own kids (6, 3, 3) and I have a full house (cue corny music) "What ever happened to predictability..."

I am sure you'll do right by your new house guests and that you'll survive the adjustments and trials/tribulations. But ya, uck.

[April Rose]

I feel for you, Carol Ann, and I don't blame you one bit for feeling frustrated with your situation. It seems we are all having to make uncomfortable adjustments in this new economy. I thought I had planned for a modest retirement. Now I've watched it all melt away in the space of a year. We are helping my son in what ways we can, hoping to avoid having him move back home, both for his sake and ours. But we can't go on paying his rent indefinitely. He can't find a job.

But , lets face it. Who is better equipped to put others needs first than a transgendered person? CD or TS, we have a life history of it. It is a recurring theme on these boards. "I can't because my wife, parents, children, neighbors, siblings, friends, job.....". Yet we put up with it. And I think we put up with it because we have grown up in the knowledge that we would have to adjust to the world, and that the world might not necessarily be inclined to adjust to us.

Anyway, I admire you so very much for having the generosity of spirit to take on this challenge. And I am hoping that you will somehow be able to come to some kind of accommodation to this obviously stressful situation.

You didn't say how old the kids were. Being not to far removed from that parental minefield, I can tell you that 14 year olds are basically a waste of space. But you would be surprised at what you can learn from a seventeen year old.