I was so looking forward to this Monday and Tuesday. Really I was. Its my first chance to take some time off and get out of town since May. Lots of my family are convening on the fair city of Atlanta to celebrate my Grandmother’s 70th birthday. I get to see cousins I haven’t seen in years. I get to eat great food. Heck, we are even going to a couple of Braves games - which despite the fact the contests mean nothing will still be a blast. So all in all it was going to be a great couple of days. . . “was” being the operative word.
This morning I was informed by my mother that I will be sharing a hotel room with my dad. This is bad. This is “The Odd Couple” only in real life and much much worse. My father is in bed by 10PM and up by 6AM. I have worked 2nd shift for 3 years. I’m not used to getting out of work until midnight. I’m up until 4 most mornings, and if someone wakes me before 10AM I morph into Oscar (the green grouch not the sloppy roomate). When I asked moms what I was going to do when he wanted to go to sleep she replied “lay in your bed and be try to be quiet”. Um, yeah. Mom has a strange sense of humor. Plus I haven’t been 15 for a loooong time.
So now what do I do? I’m not sure I can afford to pay for my own room. Not at the upscale hotel they are staying in. I love my dad and I want to see my family, but there is no way I can sit in the dark for four hours. Then the next morning he’s going to wake at 6 or 7 and watch the news very loudly. Finally the proverbial “back-breaking straw” : I smoke and dad’s not a big fan.
Should I just go and try to live through it? Maybe I shouldn’t even go down now.
My advice, go and just deal with it. I really do know where of I speak because my 70-something mom drives me batty when I have to share digs with her. That aside, it’s only a few days and it’s family; you’ll be generating all sorts of great family karma that will come flowing back when you start driving your kids crazy.
Gee, I have an idea - ignore your mother and work something out with your Dad.
If he has so little respect for you that he’s going to play the TV very loudly in the morning and wake you up, there’s no reason you should respect that he falls asleep at 10 and ‘ay in your bed and be try to be quiet’.
I suspect it’ll be easier to work something out than you think. Maybe he’ll stay up a bit late and you can sleep a bit early?
[sub](sidenote: My late dad kept the same kind of schedule - I wish I had the problem of dealing with him waking me up still. Miss him.)[/sub]
Most hotels have some sort of living room type area with couches and televisions and a bookshelf full of things to read. They’re usually empty so at least you can stay up and read or watch something.
I’m the night person in my family so I know exactly what it’s like to lie in a dark hotel room trying to be quiet. It sucks.
I would definitely sleep on the floor of living room/someone else’s room before I would sleep in the same bed as my father. Of course, he IS dead, so that’s kind of a given, but if he were still kickin’, same difference…
If you’re expected to lie there and be quiet when he’s asleep, then surely you can have the same expectation that when you’re asleep, he doesn’t turn on the TV and wake you up. Quid pro quo.
Or sleep on a park bench or get so falling down skunk-arsed drunk that no matter what he does you won’t wake up.
