Putting this here, just in case...it’s HATE SUE DAY!

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Spiky Bugger

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Jan 5, 2014
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They hate me…or at least they hate what I do…and want me to change even though that’s unlikely.

My sister wants me to stop telling her how to bank online.“ She’s 19 months younger than I, and a dinosaur. For example, she will relate a story…she paid off her car loan and needed to stop the auto pymts from her checking account. But the customer service rep she talked to on the phone stopped only the next payment. So I said something like, go into your account online and do it yourself.

Damn me! There I am “telling her how to bank” again. (Because other than that car pymt, she pays ALL her bills by writing checks, putting checks into envelopes, putting a stamp on the envelope and then clothespinning the envelope to her mailbox so that USPS picks it up…even though we have had a swarm of thieves going door-to-door stealing mail, sometimes even breaking mailboxes.) In case you haven’t met her, she is the woman in front of you in the grocery store checkout line who, when the checker hits the TOTAL key, reaches into her purse to get her checkbook. I said she should put it on a credit card, pay the card off at the end of the month and collect cash back. She corrected me. Credit cards are what you use when you don’t have enough cash to buy what you want…she doesn’t buy things she can’t afford…and if I don’t understand that, well…

And then MiniSue. She wants me to have “a social life,” although she will allow exceptions for COVID-19 prevention. Old people, she tells me, get depressed and dementia and dead when they don’t have an active social life. I’m pretty sure that all the articles she’s read were written by NOT-old people.

A woman trained in clinical psych once told me that, as we age, we OFTEN eliminate many of the cards on our “mental Rolodex.” At some point, we realize that the REASON we interacted with “Steve” and “Christine” was that we lived across the street from them and had daughters in the same GATE program and on the same swim team and such. But we moved. And the kids grew up and moved away. And they moved. And then you realize that after THOSE connections are lost, you not only have nothing in common, you are actually on opposite sides of most social/political issues. So maybe just kind of “fading away” is a GOOD thing. (It is in my book.)

While at one point, I considered a TaiChi class at a city park, my health issues/WEIRD sleeping patterns would interfere with my attendance and with where’s-the-restroom issues if I DO get there. Same problem with tutoring. In fact, ANY appointment requires that I start the day before, wrangling my Uro and GI issues, and hoping I don’t awaken bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 2:45 am unable to get back to sleep until 6:00 am or so.

So my sister wants to tell me what went wrong, but if I tell her how to keep it from happening again, I’m the bitch. Or she just hates me. And my kid, IMHO, doesn’t really “get” that I actually am disabled. She must think I like sitting here 24/7. Or she just hates me, too.

If you already hate me, please say so now, because I’d rather deal with this all on one day, if you don’t mind.
 
Aw, I'm sure your family loves you and we sure do. Tough crowd though. My family also makes a habit of sharing tips on how I can improve myself in their eyes. My eyes are too busy rolling to see things their way... ;)
Very kind. And, I suppose I was “sharing tips” on how my sister can improve herself in my eyes. I just don’t know when my tips are going to be welcomed.

Like a year or so ago, she mentioned that they were going to have to increase their payments to themselves from their retirement accounts because they needed a bit more each month. They didn’t want to do that. I was pretty sure their house was almost paid off, but that their payments were likely high based on the loan amount when they last refinanced. So, I said, “If your house payments are fairly high but your balance is fairly low, have you considered a refi? Not for a big old cash out or anything, but maybe a 15-year loan on the existing balance? You’d have the same amount of debt, much lower payments and, you can always pay it off early if your situation changes.” Now see? That time my meddling was welcome and acted upon, even though it was not requested.

As for MiniSue, now that she is “working from home” (MY home), she sees us, but especially me, here day after day and to a mid-40s person, it probably looks like pitiful isolation. There are things I’d like to be able to do. But trying to do them often turns stressful. This is not FUN, but it is comfortable.
 
It’s funny that seems to happen with families. If I give the same advice to my sister and a friend I receive totally different responses. My sister thinks I am controlling and trying to boss her around. My friend is grateful for my wisdom and insight.

Even if my sister acts on the advice, it must be legitimized from some other source. I do not take it to heart. I know that on some level she respects my opinions but still needs to “solve” her own problems.

Not to be overly religious but even Jesus encountered this type of response Mark 6:4
“But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, BUT in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” I guess to your family you are just “Sue”, and to us you are the wise Spiky Bugger.
 
It’s funny that seems to happen with families. If I give the same advice to my sister and a friend I receive totally different responses. My sister thinks I am controlling and trying to boss her around. My friend is grateful for my wisdom and insight.

Even if my sister acts on the advice, it must be legitimized from some other source. I do not take it to heart. I know that on some level she respects my opinions but still needs to “solve” her own problems.

Not to be overly religious but even Jesus encountered this type of response Mark 6:4
“But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, BUT in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” I guess to your family you are just “Sue”, and to us you are the wise Spiky Bugger.
Thank you. That is sweet.
 
You gotta love families. I'm the family idiot with all of them telling. me what to do. I just smile and say, "Thank you. I hadn't thought of that." Imagine my surprise when my bossy brother asked me for advice about visiting CO. I did live there for 22 years, but what's fun to do is subjective, right? I recommended any where on the western slope. He'll go where he wants to anyway.
 
As for MiniSue, now that she is “working from home” (MY home), she sees us, but especially me, here day after day and to a mid-40s person, it probably looks like pitiful isolation. There are things I’d like to be able to do. But trying to do them often turns stressful. This is not FUN, but it is comfortable.
Ha! My octogenarian Mom thinks I need more of a social life - with or without a pandemic. That stems mainly from her being an extrovert, while I'm not. I'm very comfortable and honestly, having fun in my own introverted way. "You do you" as my son would say!
 
Interstitial Cystitis and Irritable Bowel Syndrome significantly decreased the length of my tether, long before the pandemic hit.

I think MiniSue just SEES it more and compares my home incarceration to her mom—who was the Brownie/Girl Scout Leader/ Classroom Volunteer who hung w/some of her teachers; the once a week BINGO (where she often MADE money) with a friend; attended school and finished off her AA, then BA, then Post-grad stuff; attended every school board meeting and CORRECTED members (“no, you cannot allow the Bible study group to meet after school and simultaneously ban the Dungeons and Dragons group from using a room; this will earn the district a law suit, and I will be fighting you because I want our funds used on books and teacher salaries, not law suits...oh...and we WILL lose that law suit); and later, ”running the show” while her dad worked out of town.

THIS old woman seems mighty sedentary. And a lot less sure of herself. And a little forgetful. And asks for her advice. And strangely in need of a companion when she DOES go out. She probably wonders where I hid her mom.
 
Her mom probably should come out from her hiding place, because if she isn't very sure of herself, there's no hope for the rest of us! ;)

Intoverts unite! In our own homes! I just spent an hour on google reading about afflictions I never knew possible in order to convince myself that I can ignore a weird lump / nodule that has suddenly shown up on my palm simply to avoid a Zoom conversation with someone actually knowledgeable.
 

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