Love Is Not Enough

Love Is Not Enough

Parents sometimes do not understand the severity of things they say or do to children. However, many times things that are said or done effect the child for the rest of their life. Although the parent may not realize that he or she is hurting the child, they sometimes do.

I have one such experience. It started out as one of my happier days. The kitchen smelled of oatmeal cookies baking as my stepsister Jennifer and I attempted to clean up our flour and egg mess. She was daddy’s little girl. My dad had always favored her, but who could blame him? She had his nose, chin and do not forget the blonde hair and blue eyes. Jennifer was the spitting image of my father. I had always looked too much like my mother to be his favorite. I had brown hair, brown eyes, and freckles. About the only thing I had of my dad was his height and chin. But none of that mattered today, as I said before it was one of my better days. I was having too much fun hosing down the kitchen to worry about things like that. Jen and I had just finished cleaning up as my dad pulled into the driveway. He was an air traffic controller, and sometimes his job required him to be gone at late hours. At times we would go to bed late and he still would not be home. Today though, he was home early. He came in, gave us kisses, changed into comfy clothes and we all sat down for dinner.

I am not positive what we ate, but it was probably something instant considering that my dad was the chef. He could kind of cook. He was really good with those box meals; The ones where you just add water and fry. His other gourmet cooking consisted of the can foods; you know the ones were you plop and heat. After dinner we curled ...

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... and quietly asked, “Where’s my box?” He turned around and I felt like for the first time since the topic had come up he acknowledged my presence. He had a look on his face like I had caught him completely off guard and explained that my mom and him never actually got married. He tried to convince me that of all the things he regrets most in his life that was the biggest one. He said if he could have changed one thing he would have married my mother.

The whole situation really hurt. I was not naïve. I knew that my parents never got married. I guess I had just hoped that if my dad “loved” her enough to have a kid with her, he would love her enough to have a box of memories. His carelessness with the situation effecting me and will my entire life. Your parents are supposed to be your hero and when they emotionally let you down, you do not forget it.