Dad: 50% compulsion, 50% impulse, 0% reason.
Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:42 pm
Dad, being the Old Economy Steve he is, is probably going to retire this year at 58. He has some reasons - his workplace is absolutely toxic, with his best friend having been laid off, and only his boss's boss acknowledging the fact that dad is the only one with more brain than egos. (I don't know what it is about computer science, but it attracts people with personalities like Leona Helmsley and egos more overinflated than the Zimbabwean dollar.)
But let's just say, this is pretty much an impulse. His boss's boss legit respects him and wants to keep him working there, even willing to reassign him to a higher paying position away from the toxic boss, but will understand if he wants to retire.
Here's the... ahem... stupid part though.
He only decided this about a week ago... and he wants to move.
Why?
"Every milestone of my life, I moved. I moved when I went into high school. I moved when I went to college. I moved when I got a job. I moved when I got married. I moved when I had kids."
But all of these moves had a reason:
went to high school: Grandfather got another job, and grandmother also got a job with a jewelers in that city.
Went to college: Duh, Central Michigan isn't in Northville.
Got a job: You took the one in California.
Got married: Duh, got your own places. (Also had to move to CO, but it was easier with no kids)
Had kids: Had a two bedroom house, thought child no. 2 was going to be a boy so they didn't want to have my sister and I in the same bedroom. (Wise decision - one of us would be dead by now if my sister and I had to share the same room. :P )
When he retires? Why? I mean, what's going to happen if you don't?
I mean I get it - maybe he wants a smaller house since the mortgage is paid off and all. But.
He also does not want to be away from my sister, who lives in her own house with her boyfriend. She ALSO has a job as a teacher, and said boyfriend also has a job with a firm that's local, despite being able to work from home.
So obviously, he would want to take the whole family with him... except.
1) Sis is a teacher. While me and her boyfriend could find something, she won't be so lucky - it's very hard for teachers below the college&university level out here to move districts. Even though dad says "But your cousin got a job with Harvard from San Antonio", he forgets that said cousin is a university professor who, thanks to working on dissertations and papers, can get his name out much more than a high school teacher, and even he acknowledges that a lot of it is cause of family relations and knowing the right people. She's told him this, multiple times.
2) Sis and her boyfriend are not renters - they are owners. Ergo, it's even harder to move. (this is one reason why we actually didn't end up in Ireland - mom and dad would have had their credit ratings in the garbage.) They will be lucky if their mortgage is paid off in their 40s - at the EARLIEST. Sis is a teacher - so it's basically a single income.
He also is trying to say "But you almost moved in 2003 when we almost separated!". But well, we shot that down.
In 2003, mom and dad almost separated not cause of each other, but because my sister. My sister was, at that time, Joffrey Incarnate - and her favourite scapegoats were me and mom. At one point, we were screaming at each other for so long the neighbours called the cops, and then my sister tried to get me arrested. So mom and dad were considering separating until we finished high school because when my sister wasn't trying to get me arrested, she was lashing out at mom.
But they didn't - cause that was, again, an impulse decision and there were probably ways to do it without having to explain to me why I have to be the one who leaves the house while she gets to remain in the house she grew up in. :P (I wish they considered therapy for my sister. :/ it's pretty clear she had and still has problems, then again, mom and dad are still kinda in denial over the fact that she might have more wrong with her than O.I...)
So yeah, dad really isn't listening to reason. I'm aware I sound like Melchior or Artorius, except I don't want to sink to THEIR levels. >:| [props if you catch the reference]
But let's just say, this is pretty much an impulse. His boss's boss legit respects him and wants to keep him working there, even willing to reassign him to a higher paying position away from the toxic boss, but will understand if he wants to retire.
Here's the... ahem... stupid part though.
He only decided this about a week ago... and he wants to move.
Why?
"Every milestone of my life, I moved. I moved when I went into high school. I moved when I went to college. I moved when I got a job. I moved when I got married. I moved when I had kids."
But all of these moves had a reason:
went to high school: Grandfather got another job, and grandmother also got a job with a jewelers in that city.
Went to college: Duh, Central Michigan isn't in Northville.
Got a job: You took the one in California.
Got married: Duh, got your own places. (Also had to move to CO, but it was easier with no kids)
Had kids: Had a two bedroom house, thought child no. 2 was going to be a boy so they didn't want to have my sister and I in the same bedroom. (Wise decision - one of us would be dead by now if my sister and I had to share the same room. :P )
When he retires? Why? I mean, what's going to happen if you don't?
I mean I get it - maybe he wants a smaller house since the mortgage is paid off and all. But.
He also does not want to be away from my sister, who lives in her own house with her boyfriend. She ALSO has a job as a teacher, and said boyfriend also has a job with a firm that's local, despite being able to work from home.
So obviously, he would want to take the whole family with him... except.
1) Sis is a teacher. While me and her boyfriend could find something, she won't be so lucky - it's very hard for teachers below the college&university level out here to move districts. Even though dad says "But your cousin got a job with Harvard from San Antonio", he forgets that said cousin is a university professor who, thanks to working on dissertations and papers, can get his name out much more than a high school teacher, and even he acknowledges that a lot of it is cause of family relations and knowing the right people. She's told him this, multiple times.
2) Sis and her boyfriend are not renters - they are owners. Ergo, it's even harder to move. (this is one reason why we actually didn't end up in Ireland - mom and dad would have had their credit ratings in the garbage.) They will be lucky if their mortgage is paid off in their 40s - at the EARLIEST. Sis is a teacher - so it's basically a single income.
He also is trying to say "But you almost moved in 2003 when we almost separated!". But well, we shot that down.
In 2003, mom and dad almost separated not cause of each other, but because my sister. My sister was, at that time, Joffrey Incarnate - and her favourite scapegoats were me and mom. At one point, we were screaming at each other for so long the neighbours called the cops, and then my sister tried to get me arrested. So mom and dad were considering separating until we finished high school because when my sister wasn't trying to get me arrested, she was lashing out at mom.
But they didn't - cause that was, again, an impulse decision and there were probably ways to do it without having to explain to me why I have to be the one who leaves the house while she gets to remain in the house she grew up in. :P (I wish they considered therapy for my sister. :/ it's pretty clear she had and still has problems, then again, mom and dad are still kinda in denial over the fact that she might have more wrong with her than O.I...)
So yeah, dad really isn't listening to reason. I'm aware I sound like Melchior or Artorius, except I don't want to sink to THEIR levels. >:| [props if you catch the reference]