Saturday, November 19, 2011

Family Dinners

Yesterday, the great news of my brother passing the Licensure Exam for Teachers (Sep 2011) reached everyone in my family like an outbreak. We are all so happy, and of course as the one who paid for his schooling, I'm grateful. Ecstatic, even. I immediately sent an SMS back to my whole family. In an hour, my mom starts texting my bro if he wants to have dinner with the family, since "Ate is scheduled to go home tonight." She CC's everyone.

I reply and tell my mom that yes, I am planning to go home, but I don't have a car. I'm hitching a ride from my friend Mel; given my recent track record on cars and driving, I have no plans on driving through the Christmas-holiday-rush-traffic / payday weekend / Breaking Dawn Part 1 opening night. And more importantly, I don't expect to be out earlier than 7PM as my boss is leaving the next day. I'd probably just eat morsels by the time I get off work and brave through the Friday traffic. Emailing everyday, it's second nature to me to copy everyone too. (If only there's a Reply All button on SMS, I'd hit that.) My bro, being an anti social, is not so thrilled about it (or family gatherings in general) and couldn't care less. He replies and reminds mom that Ate's schedule can't make it.

So of course, the mother--a Taurus like me--calls me up and puts it on me indirectly that it's somehow my fault that we can't have family dinner that night. I get so pissed, and lose my momentum at work. I literally stopped working and kept pacing around.

Don't get me wrong, I love family dinners. My family is used to bonding over food. Dinners and lunches are usually three hours long because of the unending stories. But what I don't understand is how my mom would still kind of instill in us like it's a chore. I know it's some unwritten rule on responsibility to catch up with your family, but my point is, won't they understand that the kids grew up and can make plans on their own? It's not like I go home from school, and I have no money so I have no choice but to stay home and wait til my 'rents figure something nice to do that night.

It's not as easy as telling your kids to drop everything, do it later coz we have to go somewhere. I have friends who have adjusted their schedules, meetings that were set prior, and work that I must pay attention to. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to your bro! Your mom is just ecstatic as yours that day and I think she misses all of you.. You could still schedule it some other time.. :)

Katia said...

Oh I forgot to say, she won that debate. We had dinner that night.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that's the power of the parents.. :)