Chiquita on my Stupid Divorced Parents

My parents have been divorced for as long as I can remember. I have always lived with my mom, and I've only seen my dad in waves throughout my childhood. From the time he left when I was three until the time he married my first stepmom was I was six, I didn't see him at all. He called my brother and I every once in a while, and he came to both our birthdays when I turned five and my brother turned seven. Jordan had a much better memory of my father during this time than I did because he was five years old when he left, and I was only three.
The first real memory I have of my father is the day when I met my step family. I remember coming into the house through the back door that led into the kitchen. My father was holding my brother's hand, leading him into the house. I clung to Jordan's hand for dear life. I remember feeling like I wanted to cry, but I didn't know why. Three girls came into the kitchen, and one woman. The girls' names were Kara, Cassie, and Ashley. The woman, our new stepmother, was Lisa. She was huge, or at least she seemed that way to me when I was six. If I saw her at the grocery store today, I probably wouldn't even recognize her. Its kind of like when you wake up from a nightmare, and you're scared and you know you should be scared, but you can't for the life of you conjur up the image of whatever it was that scared you. Needless to say, my brother and I hated her. Eventually, we stopped going to his house, or their house rather. THis was probably around the time that I was about eight. From then until I was nine, I didnt see him.
The summer I was nine years old, he divorced my step mom. She got his childhood home that they had been living in, so he moved into an apartment building in Marion called Taylor Wood. While he was living there, he dated a woman named Denise. Denise had a daughter named Rachel who was in between my brother and I in age. I liked them all right. We went over to my dad's apartment a lot when he first moved in, but over time he started making more and more excuses as to why we couldn't come over. We hadn't seen him in a few weeks, so when he finally called to see if we wanted to come over, I was really excited. When it came time for him to come get us, he didn't show up. We had to call him quite a few times before he finally answered. He said he wasn't coming because he was too tired. When my mom saw how disappointed we were, she decided to take us out to dinner. When we got to the restaurant, we saw my dad laughing and having a great time eating dinner with Denise and Rachel. I demanded that we leave. I didn't speak to my dad for a long time after that. I was really hurt that he blew me off like that. A couple of years went by of me going to his house on and off as I felt like it. He continued living at Taylor Wood for a while. When I was in fifth grade, my dad started dating a woman named Karen. After a while Karen, her son Taylor, and my dad moved into a house not far from where I lived with my mom. They never married, but they lived together for about a year before they split up. After that my dad lived with his mom for a while to take care of her before we decided to put her in a nursing home. While he was living with my grandma, he met my now stepmom, Vicki. They got married when I was in 8th grade. We went on a road trip right after the wedding.

Basically, what I'm trying to get across here is that my dad hasn't always been there for me. But now, he does much better. He helps out where he can. Its really nice to see that he at least is trying.

Now about my mom. To put it simply, she's always been the one who's taken care of me. We've been close for a long time, but recently all we do is fight. I asked her a while ago if I could have a grad party, and she said no because she doesn't want to pay for it. I was ok with that at first, I thought we could just go out to dinner or something. But then all my friends were asking me when my grad party was, and I kept having to say that I wasn't having one, and it really sucked. So i decided to talk to my dad about it. He said he'd love to help me out with it. So when I saw my mom after school on Monday, I told her I was having a grad party. She immediately yelled at me that I wasn't having one. I said simply that I was. She said, "Well, I'm not paying for it." I said, "I know. Dad is." That's when she freaked out and started yelling at me about how I'm ungreatful and all. I was really upset, so I called my dad when I got to work. He said of course he would pay for it, but no way was my mother invited. This did not help at all.

I am so sick of my parents. I should not have to choose between them. I should be able to have a grad party like every other kid at my school and I should be able to have both my parents there. They are just so childish. They think its ALL ABOUT THEM. Well its not. My graduation and my graduation party is about ME. ME ME ME. Just this one time, can't they put their differences aside and be there for THEIR daughter? Nope, I guess not.

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