How close are you to your parents?

How close are you to your parents?

Emma Hendricks

Ever since I was little I have been close to my Mom. She would consider us besties and I would say so too. We do everything together and there is no moment where I am embarrassed of her, or pretend like I don’t know her. In my mind she is the most awesome person and anyone who met her would be excited to know her. She is always putting others before herself even when she should just relax. I think we first got close to each other when I was pretty young and we lived in Vegas and my dad would have business trips all the time. While he was away we would hang out every second of the day and do everything together. And even when we get mad at each other it changes quickly because we can’t stay mad. My mom would do anything for me and I would do anything for her because she’s the best person I have in my life. She does so much for me that I can’t even fathom. I don’t know how I could ever make it up to her besides doing as many dishes as she wants me to do. So I would say I’m super close with my mom. For my dads they are different stories. 

My biological Dad, Fredson and I have never been too close. When I was younger and in Las Vegas we would hang out together but I didn’t enjoy hanging out with him because he did mean things to me and would hurt me. I never really understood why I got angry every time I saw him or talked about him until I got older. He was a really sore spot for me for a while. And then out of nowhere he showed up again and started nicer to me. I was around twelve then and he changed the way he talked to me and acted and I mistakenly thought he completely changed. But it tricked me because I expected him to change in one visit when that wasn’t possible. A lot of the times he would visit I would just get overwhelmed with his presence because he could be overbearing and just too much. Over the years he’s getting better with how he treats me and we have gotten closer and I think we’ll continue to get closer as I get older. 

Next up is my step-dad. Patrick has always been a calm and gentle person. He’s never yelled at me because his natural demeanor is to just be quiet and nice. He always listens to you and it makes you feel like he cares. He lives in Vegas so I visit him one to two times a year. But the time I’m there always feels to short. I love how every night I’m visiting him he’ll put on a movie for just me and him to watch and he always falls asleep. He’s also a very emotional guy, if you write him a sappy card there is a 100% chance he will cry. Which I like about him, he’s not afraid to show his emotions. Which is kinda helpful for me because Fredson always taught me that showing your emotions wasn’t a good thing and you should never over share, or tell any of your secrets. Both of them made my personality a mix of the two. Patrick is also super good at barbecue and always cooks my favorite foods because he remembers. He also thinks of me every time he is working on his construction jobs because he sends me behind the scenes photos of cool new building additions to Vegas. My closeness to Patrick is great besides the literal states between us. 

Finally there is my step-step dad, Geo. Geo is a nice person. He’s grumpy sometimes but also really funny. He teases me occasionally which I either laugh off, or if it’s been a long day I get kinda mad at them. I don’t know why, maybe it is easier to, but I bring out my anger on Geo when I should be much nicer to him. He does really nice things for me that in the moment I’m grateful for but just forget about later when I’m ticked off. Honestly though, our household would not be as fun and crazy if he wasn’t there so I would never actually want him to leave whether I joke about it or not. He also treats my mom really well and that is an important factor into how much I like him. Overall I would say that we’re close but just have rough patches occasionally.