Now, I know that they have the right since I still live at home, although my living at home is not only because I can't live on my own on the money I make (drawing disability for depression)-it is because, they have told me, that they would starve and be homeless if I moved out and took my money with me.
Nevertheless, they say I spend too much time online and that people online don't matter (although one of my very best friends is someone I have met online at fanfiction.net as a fellow writer, and most of my online friendships have lasted longer than my offline friendships) They are hinting that they wish to limit my social activities to shopping with them and to throwing myself into church activities like Sunday school and the college group there.
I've tried to tell them that neither would work very well for me, but they refuse to listen and just say I need to try harder.
About the college-age Sunday school class, I have been there and been to a few social functions. At those, 70 to 80 percent of the class is people in the military or ROTC. There are few experiences more utterly uncomfortable than being an antiwar pacifist in a room given over to military shop talk LOL.
The other problems with the people my age at church is that most are quite conservative, and that our interests don't align at all.
For one example, my only anime fan "friend" is in that group. Anytime I say anything to her about what I like or try to start a discussion when we meet on AIM, she treats me like slime, complete with saying "yeahhh riiiggght" when I say anything about anything other than her personal favorite Digimon. ^sigh^ All other anime is "trash" and "pollution." Then, when we meet at church, she says she doesn't remember doing any of this. For now, I will assume that she suffers from selective amnesia.
It's not only anime and whatnot. For example, all of the women my age are your typical "girly girls." To a one, everyone wants to be a schoolteacher, a singer, and married with kids. They talk about things like shopping, clothes, school, cellphones, and who they are courting-that's it-and most look like they spend hours working on their hair and face.
Meanwhile, I'm the classic tomboy LOL. I want to be a journalist or an attorney, I have no plans for marriage and don't really like guys, I like discussing technology, books, travel, current events, pets, and anime among other things, and my idea of style is making sure my hair's washed and finding clean clothes and a pair of shoes that isn't falling apart too badly.
Hence, I have VERY little in common with them, and definitely not enough to even fit into the group-which I don't want to do anyway. I want to be myself.
I've asked if I could change churches even if someone else drove me to the other church-and that was met with a guilt trip and a small sermon about how when one thinks God has changed, that means the person has changed from my mother. I haven't brought up the topic since. ^sigh^
Anyway, this isn't the only problem. I proposed the idea of joining a few clubs or community service efforts when I go to college this fall, but that was ixnayed for being too much of an expense, and because my mother and sister say they want me to concentrate on my grades. They want straight As, and are threatening me with taking away my internet access entirely for "wasting my time online and not doing my work" unless I bring in perfect grades. They are also saying they want to supervise me doing my homework to make sure I'm responsible. ^sigh^ I don't really want to be chewed out for expressing my point of view in a school essay they insist on reading.
Also, they say they will not see me as "not naive" until I can take care of myself according to their standards: which means not only being an OK cook and financial manager like most people in their 20s, but being a great cook and someone who has everything financial already figured out. However. . .my very weakest places are cooking and finance. Unlike them, my memory works differently and I *don't* have a head for numbers or for planning and timing huge family feasts.
Lastly, my mother wants me to either get married or live with my sister all my life. ^sigh^ Neither appeals to me at all (I don't like guys and I don't really want to live my entire life with my sister so she can tell me what to do and punish me for not doing it by removing my internet access or sulking for days), nor do I see either as God's calling for my life.
Sorry for bothering all of you.
I think there are some deeper issues going on here... seems to me she's afraid she'll lose control over you.
How dare you even joke about that?
Ack. Interesting. Last I saw, my post had vanished on me but ZiP's was there.
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