Chip Chick
About a month ago, this 17-year-old guy’s sister Sarah, who is 21, had to move everything from her apartment back to their parent’s home. Sarah’s rent had really skyrocketed, and her landlord wasn’t doing the repairs that needed to be done.
So, their parents, who are in their early 50s, offered up their basement as a place for her to store her things until she finds a new place to live by the time school starts in the fall.
The basement of the house is often the space that he and his friends use to hang out and play video games. However, since Sarah’s stuff has been moved in, there’s no longer space for a group of people.
Even though he understands that his sister is in a difficult situation, he is frustrated about how it’s affecting him and his life.
He decided to sit down and have a conversation with his father about how he was feeling about not having much space in the basement anymore. His father recognized that the situation was not ideal but assured him that it was a temporary thing and asked for his son to have more patience with his sister’s position.
He tried to continue with the conversation but was interrupted by his father offering to pay him a rent fee for the basement in order to allow Sarah’s stuff to stay put for the time being.
“He started pulling out his wallet and everything. I was annoyed by this, as I thought he was being dismissive, and I refused his offer,” he explained.
At this point, his dad was pretty surprised and apologized again for perhaps not fully listening to his concerns.
However, his father told him that he was serious about paying for the time the basement was being occupied, but he just yelled at his father that he was missing the point. His father urged him to be more empathetic and understanding toward his sister.
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