I thought that at 14, I should be able to be house by myself whenever I wasn’t in school.
When our mom and dad said that they were going away overnight, I was exasperated when they told me they were going to get a babysitter for me.
I did not need a babysitter, and I voiced that quite loudly. My dad told me that I either stayed with the babysitter, or I went and stayed with our Grandparents. That wasn’t a hard option to make, since our Grandparents lived right next door to our house. I was sure I could talk our Grandma into allowing me to spend the night in our own bed, instead of in her house. I could not have been more wrong. When she told me the Heating and A/C worker was going to be at her house the next afternoon, I offered to stick around while she and Grandpa went shopping; She was positive that the Heating and A/C worker would show up when they were home, and she appreciated our sticking around the house. As they were walking out the door, our Grandpa told me to not let anyone into the house until I saw a company batch. He’d already notified the Heating and A/C company that I was going to be alone, and whoever showed up to labor on their oil furnace would have to show their badge before they could come into the house. I now felt love a six-year-old who wasn’t even allowed to close the door to their kitchen and fear their mother getting exasperated. What made matters even worse, was when our Grandma allowed me to stay in our bed in our own house, but our Grandpa had come over with me.