My parents never paid enough attention to me. Mom worked as a seamstress seven days a week, and Dad was at the office until he had a black eye. They were paying off student debts and the apartment, and I was originally an unwanted child, a burden that had fallen on their heads, and they didn’t have the courage to get rid of me. Since my parents had a strained relationship with their relatives, I could not be passed on to my grandparents, and I always felt very lonely.
My studies were not going well, but I was not even scolded for that, nor could they take a minute to help me do my homework. I didn’t go to any clubs, but I hung out with the neighborhood kids after school almost until graduation. I couldn’t get into a good university, I had to go to a technical college to learn to cook, since my grades there were minimal.
Already busy working and studying, I met Veronica. She was not just beautiful and smart, but also funny and witty and interesting. I literally ran after her, asking her out on a date, and a miracle happened-she said yes.
I always wanted the best for her: I cooked delicacies, bought flowers, gave gifts. I must have bribed her with this, because she offered to live together in a rented apartment. And she introduced me to her family four months after we started our relationship. And what great parents she had!
I myself had always lived in a lack of parental love, and Veronica’s family literally surrounded me with care. She had a big noisy family, always cheerful, with jokes and songs. That’s why Veronica was like that. I found my comfortable place in this girl and her family, and I was so afraid of losing it that I proposed to Veronica in the sixth month of our relationship. I was afraid she wouldn’t dare marry me at twenty, but she didn’t say no.
Somehow it happened that right after the wedding we found out that she was pregnant, and, frankly speaking, it was the best nine months of our life – in exciting anticipation of a miracle. And we also had twins.
I am now a parent myself, an adult who occasionally struggles with work or financial problems, but somehow I always have time for my kids and my wife. I don’t want to accuse my parents of pretending or not wanting to see me, but I truly believe that any parent is able to find time and energy for their child, no matter how busy they are. For me, my own family, happy, large, growing, only confirms that my parents at one time simply did not want to be “parents. Just as they don’t want to be “grandparents” now at all.
