Who are These People?

And what are they doing in my home?

Being the parents of grown children is challenging. We are at the point (18 and 19) where they are independent, but not. For instance, we are still paying for their cell phones, electricity, food (when they eat at home) and in the case of our youngest, gas. My son pays for his own gas, college, and half his insurance. Daughter pays for half her insurance, clothes and coffee. (A habit that rivals mine, so it's not cheap keeping her in coffee. Ask her boyfriend.)

I don't get to see them much. A text here and there. You know, "Going fishing! TTYL!" Or, "I'm off to the beach with friends! Text you when I get there".

I want to go to the beach with friends.

I know they still live here because their rooms look lived in (i.e. messy) and usually have various components (X-box, laptop, TV, radios, etc.), left on. Their clothing still appears in the dirty laundry. Including my daughter's boyfriend's comfy clothes, which he keeps here to change into to when they watch movies or lounge around. Food disappears from the fridge and my gas card still disappears from my wallet.

Dirty dishes appear in the sink as if by magic. And yet, very seldom do clean dishes get put away by themselves. Where's the magic when you need it? Clean laundry gets rooted through, but rarely folded or put away. The sports section appears every morning in front of the toilet (EWWW) and I have to take it out.

I'm kind of starting to resent them.

For instance, I fold clothes and my daughter's lacy Victoria Secret panties are right next to my Walmart specials. We still get bills in the mail or delivered to our inbox from the college, iTunes and Verizon. But amazingly enough, the garbage never gets taken out. My makeup still gets used. In theory, I share a car with my daughter, but it's never here. The home phone is always off the hook and dead, in spite of both of them having their own cell phones. Nice cell phones. My son has an Envy, my daughter a Voyager and I have a three year old LG. Huh?

I still get little sticky notes on my computer asking me to make various doctor's/dentists appointments for them. Hey, I should just be thankful they are thinking of those things, but why can't they make their own appointments on their snazzy phones?

I shouldn't complain too much, both are doing well, have jobs, are educating themselves and learning how to fly. They better be. Cause I'm getting more and more tempted to push them out of the nest as time goes on.