Brandi: The summer holidays are coming up, and I could use a hand with the boys.
Dustin: Mum, you work evening shifts, and Darren stays home, when even would you be needing childcare you didn’t need during the school year?
Brandi: It’s not really about watching over them, sure, we can watch over them, but they’re active kids, they’ll get so bored in the house all summer, I’m just looking for some activities for them.
Dustin: Active kids? Don’t make me laugh, Beau will be entertained for literal weeks inside just watching Darren paint flowers on a canvas.
Brandi: Well, that’s exactly why I want to get him outdoors! He needs to make some friends and move his body a little. And Junior needs something to tire him out. If they both stay indoors together, Junior will just torment Beau all day.
Dustin: What do you need from me? I have my own life, and I can’t just bring them over to Angela’s parents’ house with me…
Brandi: I was thinking maybe you could take them to the beach from time to time, or to the football fields. You have a car now. Remember, ours got stolen.
Dustin: You absolutely don’t need a car to go to the football fields, there are ones within walking distance.
Brandi: But they need someone to go with them. They’re 8 and 12, I can’t let them go on their own.
Dustin: I was walking everywhere on my own at 8!
Brandi: No, you weren’t! For one, the playground is not “everywhere”; for two, times have changed! It’s more dangerous for kids out there now.
Dustin paused for a second. He knew the real reason he spent so much time on his own as a child was because his parents preferred to do other things and didn’t care that much about where he was. He knew if he brought this up to his mother now, she would get defensive and say it was just because they trusted him, when in reality, it was negligence. And if the argument got heated, she would go on a tangent about how they were poor and too young and still did the best they could. What really annoyed Dustin about these excuses is how he thought Brandi just couldn’t be honest with herself – she still couldn’t admit to herself even after all this time that Skip had always been a bad influence on her, and becoming a teen mum wasn’t what she wanted or planned, but rather something that she felt she had no control over and just had to go along with. As time went on and Dustin saw his mother give Beau and Junior the attention and care he never got from her, in a nice suburban house with a patient, present and kind husband, he realized just how vulnerable Brandi had always been to the circumstances, but how deep in denial she still was about it. It would have been so easy – Dustin thought – for her to use her late husband as a scapegoat now whenever a discussion demanded blame to be thrown around, but she never hesitated to come to his defenses. In fact, Dustin had a theory that maybe – despite being married to a good man now – Brandi was still deluded by her love for Skip, and maybe, but just maybe, the reason she kept asking Dustin to help out with the boys was because she saw his father in him, and by having him fulfill these parental duties and keeping him close to the little ones, it was a bit like Skip was still there, watching over his children with her.
baratheonpilled
prguitarman
turnnoffyourmind
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
areudirty
yousharknotpass
