Fractions and Perimeters

Recently, there have been a few changes in the house. My relative from a few cities over has been getting sicker and sicker. To help, my mom would take herself, my aunt, and my uncle over to that relative’s house during the weekdays and would come back home on the weekends. This way, my mom can watch over that relative before and after work, and my uncle and aunt can do their best to watch that relative when my mom is gone at work. That relative’s health had begun deteriorating at an exponential rate. Just a few months ago, she could still walk and feed herself, but now, due to old age, she’s stuck on a wheelchair and needs help putting on her clothes. She can’t wipe, bathe, or feed herself properly. That relative does have kids of her own, but one is a deadbeat and the other has his own family and career to worry about. My mom took pity, since this relative also took care of her when she was young, and decided to step in.

This has just left me, my cousin, and my dad at home. I got a workload off my shoulders, but now, I just have to basically parent the kid. My dad doesn't really care for the kid since its not his child and therefore not his responsibility, but my mom entrusted me with her so I kinda got no choice. The time this ‘change’ began, was around the same time my cousin was starting school again, so I’ve been having to deal with registering her back in school, meeting/emailing her teachers, and looking around for clubs or something to sign her up for after-school programs. And now that she is in school, that means I need to walk her to school in the morning, pick her up in the afternoon, cook food, tutor her (because her math and English skills suck), and help her pack her school lunch. It’s honestly not too hard since she’s not a difficult kid. The only thing that does make me feel a bit sad is that I can’t meet up with my friends so much. My weekends are free since thats when the adults get back, but on weekdays, if some of my friends invite me out, I have to decline. My dad is still at home too, but sometimes he leaves to another city the whole day to meet with his own retired friends, so I have to stay home to watch the kid.

I wouldn’t have so much of a problem watching her if her dad paid me. Just like my dad, this isn’t my kid and I have zero responsibilities for her, but I still have to sacrifice my own time and money. That cheapskate uncle won’t even leave $20 a week for his own kid. She even reminds him to leave her some pocket money but he plays dumb. When confronted by my mom, he says he wants to save his money so he can visit the motherland (and have extra money for prostitutes). When his daughter confronts him, he twists the story a bit and says he has no money to leave her (lies because he has 5k in the bank and my mom pays him $130 a week for helping take care of the sick relative). Interesting, because he has money for his daily beer and cigarettes yet doesn’t even want to support his daughter. My cooking skills aren’t all that great so some days, I’d just buy takeout, and I’d have to fish for my own money to make sure she doesn’t starve either.

Whatever. Life is at least a bit easier. Sometimes tutoring the kid isn’t easy. We spent the last 6 months going over fractions; adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, whole fractions, and mixed fractions. Since now it’s a new school year, I thought she’s probably mastered fractions now and should learn something new. I gave her a “final” on the basis of fractions and she got 100% so that further cemented my plan. I tried teaching her areas and perimeters of squares, rectangles, and triangles, and she was getting the hang of it. After one week of areas and perimeters, I decided to integrate some fractions into the math problems. She takes a look at the problems and with all seriousness in her face and voice, she tells me, “Lia, I’ve never seen these before. Why are there lines between numbers?”

I wanted to cry.

I tried to jog her memory a bit and it looked like she started to remember. I watched over her when adding up the perimeters and she basically did 2/3 + 1/6 = 3/9.

The train tracks have never looked more comfortable.

Welp, so that was 6 months down the drain. It was only a week, and she forgot everything already. I had to halt the area/perimeter lessons and go back to teaching her fractions.

Well thats been the last 2-3 weeks. There’s only one more week of this until I go back to school. The situation will probably change then since I have classes 4 days a week and won’t be home until 9 at night for half of those days. One of the after school programs called me back and said there was an opening for her, so hopefully they can help with whatever that kid’s problem is.

TLDR: I’m basically a mom to my cousin now, but I hate kids.