Multi generational drama
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Some one last week asked me, “do you have any drama in your house?” Ummm, yes. What do you call that, “multi generational” drama? ha. I was thinking this week about what to share today with you and I sometimes I feel so weird writing about our family and personal stuff but you all seem to come out of the wood work for those posts and the emails and comments I get are hilarious, serious and eye opening. Sometimes I forget that our unique living arrangement is “not the norm” and many find it intriging and some actually have the nerve to email and ask me if I’m crazy. Those emails make me laugh.
Sometimes I think we are crazy!
This week was just a regular old week for us. We have drama everyday around here, I just don’t normally write about it. Today, I feel like writing about it. The Pellet stove saga lasted for two days. My grandfather had a beef with the stove lady who ordered his “pellets” to soon (per my dad’s request), my dad told my grandfather to pound sand and little old me was the mediator between the stove lady, my dad and grandfather. Can you imagine getting a phone call from a local business telling you that your grandfather is creating chaos in their store over pellets!?
You see, we have two pellet stoves. One is in the main part of the house and the other is in my grandparents part of the house. My dad, husband and I split the cost of the pellets for our stove and my grandfather buys his own. Seems fairly simple right? We are running out (we ran out) of pellets so my dad went and ordered more and decided he would order my grandfather’s as well. You can see, my grandfather’s pellets are on one side of the garage and we are on the other.
Needless to say, dear old gramps still has some and thinks his 10 bags will last him through the end of March. Probably not. My grandfather got wind that they were delivering 7 pallets of pellets this week and he decided to cancel the entire order because he didn’t need any. Maaaaammaaa say whaaaa?
After I got off the phone with the stove lady I asked my grandfather, “why did you cancel all the pellets?” his response, “because I don’t want them {bleep bleep bleep}”. I’m giving you the short version of the drama in an effort to keep it G rated. This is my gram as she watches my grandfather in action.
Needless to say, after four phone calls to my dad, the stove lady and listening to my grandfather melt down all afternoon, the pellets are being delivered today. Like I said, this is the clean nice version. You would not believe the drama that goes on around here. How about you, any multi generational drama in your home?
PS. if you are reading this “stove lady” I know you are laughing 🙂
Meet Jessica
What started as a hobby, Jessica’s blog now has millions of people visit yearly and while many of the projects and posts look and sound perfect, life hasn’t always been easy. Read Jessica’s story and how overcoming death, divorce and dementia was one of her biggest life lessons to date.
Love it…I suspect these are the moments that will be part of your great stories to tell years from now!
You’re so cute! Living in TX, I didn’t know what you were talking about at first – pellets. The first thing that came to mind was rabbit pellets, which brought back memories of one time when we house sat for my parents ages ago (1980-something). They had gone on a cruise for 2 wks and back then my dad raised rabbits, so they needed to be cared for while my parents were gone. A red female had recently given birth and she was very mean and would scratch me everytime I’d stick my hand into her cage to feed her. Well, don’t you know that 2 days before my parents returned from their trip, that same rabbit DIED. I just came out one morning and she was stiff. I wrapped her in plastic and put her in the freezer (I know, gross, but I knew my dad would want to see her). However, when my parents returned, my dad accused me of KILLING the rabbit because I didn’t like her! Talk about drama! He was saying all of this in front of my 2 kids, too. But, both my husband and my mom (who wasn’t even there obviously) stuck up for me. He finally calmed down when my oldest child, my daughter, told him that her mommy wouldn’t kill anything. It seems funny now, but it sure wasn’t then.
Oh yes, we have pellets here in New England 🙂 Sounds like you had your hands full!
I can fully relate to your dilema with your Grandfather!
Ours is not multi generations, and not all in one house, thank goodness. However it can be just a little uneasy….LOL I live with my brother, and our parents live 2.5 miles from us. Without going into detail, I will say that there are moments when I am ready to pull my hair out!
I have admiration for anyone who can deal with family with such Grace as you do!
haha, thanks Bev!
I know just what you mean…I wrote a couple weeks ago about our only son and his family living with us in a duplex we built. A complication in our equation, which is probably common in multi-generational households, is that my husband is a first- generation immigrant. Although he speaks English well (after 35 years in the U.S.) his method of communicating is so very different from my son’s. Add to this the fact that they work together in the family business and we have several “upsets”, to put it mildly, a week! As I said before…it’s a far more complicated but also far richer life than any of us would have living separately.
Funny stuff! We are 3 generations under the same roof, my husband and I, our 18 year old son(graduating HS) this spring, my adult daughter and her 3 kiddos, 4 year old twins and a 5 year old daughter. We have all lived together about 2 years now. The first year was a big adjustment, the second has been much more peaceful. Either more peaceful or we just adjusted our attitudes. We get to enjoy toddler drama, teenager drama occasionally, adult child living at home drama, and our own mess 🙂 For us, this has worked nicely, probably because of our ability to be very flexible.When it gets to be too much, I book a loooong weekend away for my husband and I and come back happy, happy, happy 🙂 Good luck and we enjoy your posts!
Sounds like you guys have a great plan at your home and all is good! I always love hearing about other multi gen living arrangements 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Ha, ha! We also have a pellet stove and it is usually my job to pick them up in the hubby’s truck. A job I hate. Grandma’s eye rolling is me when the hubs says I need to go pick up more pellets.
Even “The Waltons” had drama.
Jess! Did you cut your hair & NOT tell me?????? It looks cute BTW. Darn, I wish you lived here so we could laugh over your drama over a cup of Starbucks…. errrr, Dunkin’ Doughnuts…. (caught myself). 😉
haha, I did chop about 8 inches off a month ago! Oh yes, Dunkin Donuts is a daily trip around here but Starbucks is my Friday fav as a treat 🙂
I would say we had much more drama when we first created this arrangement (3 generations under one roof, my single mother who had all her kids grown and gone moving in with us and 2 kids under the age of 4…adding 2 more over the next 4 years!!) than we do now. But I wonder how much of the drama that first year was just 3 strong personalities learning to live together! Your story made me chuckle because your grandpa reminds a lot of my mom’s dad (who is gone now!) He would have done something like that too! It’s probably a good thing we didn’t live together! lol
Hi Kari! Yes, it takes a while to get in the groove of living together for sure. Oh my, our first 6 months was a nightmare….ha!
I just wanted to tell you that because of your blog we are biting the bullet and adding onto our home big time…to become a multigen home! We are the oldest generation (REALLY??!!!! When did that happen???) and the next generation is my youngest daughter and her husband with two children and three cats! In addition to my cat, Princess, who is going to have a total meltdown fit when the other three move in! : )
Seriously, in previous days-trying not to say olden days lol!-many parents and children lived together with their families. During the baby boom the trend toward smaller new homes seemed to cause people to get away from that style of living. I think you have taken the stigma of living with older/younger generations away with your blog! I love hearing about your family life! We made the decision to make this change because property taxes are outrageous and frankly I own the big in the ground swimming pool! LOL! My daughter and son in law work many hours and they have two children 7 and 6. The kids have activities most nights of the week and its hard for momma and daddy to get them there. It just makes sense to do it!
Thank you for your inspiration!
Debra
That is fantastic!!!!! I love when I get comments like this 🙂 Good luck and keep us posted. Would love to see renovation pics as you get going on what your plans are :). It’s always fun to see how other multi gen families make it work. Stay in touch!