Three Anchors

Last year, I had my extended family emigrate to my country. My auntie, uncle, cousin (uncle’s daughter), and my uncle’s wife came over. I hate them. My auntie is partially deaf and coming from a third world country, my mom pulled her out of school at a young age because the teachers kept getting frustrated and hitting her for not hearing them. My uncle developed leprosy in his late 20s-30s so his fingers are kinda fucked. They’re always clenched and he has difficulty using them. My cousin is 10 years younger than me. Poor thing. Her biological mom had a seizure and died when she was just 2. My uncle’s new wife is the only tolerable person to come over. Those two aren’t really married. She’s my mom’s childhood friend and married into the family to get a green card. That lady is LOADED and loves spoiling me. That’s the only reason why I like her. Out of the four, she’s the only one that’s genuinely compassionate.

After my mom emigrated over first and left the family behind, she’s been spending the last 14 years trying to get the rest of them over the “right way” and not by “jumping the border”. Within that 14 years, she’s been continuously sending $2000 back home each month for her family to use. $2000 is a decent amount of money here but being sent over to a third world country, that amount basically triples in value. (I’m not sure if this is making sense. I’m trying to give as much details as possible without giving too much out.) Anyways, auntie would use that money to get mani/pedis, buy gold jewelry, and for food. Uncle would use it for beer, cigarettes, and hookers. Because my cousin grew up without her mom and being my uncle’s only kid, my uncle spoiled the shit out of her. She would continuously skip school and grew up incredibly vain. Even at 11 years old, she would always look at herself in ANY reflective surface (i.e. microwave doors, reflective windows, spoons, etc) and fix herself up. She comes home with stories about how her classmates call her the prettiest student (I find that very hard to believe).

Because my mom is their sponsor, the law requires my mom to be their guardian for the next 3 years (or 5 I’m not sure). They’ve been staying with us this past year and I hate it. The auntie is used to going out to buying whatever food she wants whenever she gets hungry, but being here and not knowing the language, that restricts her a bit. We do have food at home but she refuses to eat the same dish twice. She’s so fucking high maintenance for someone that can’t even contribute anything to the family. Neither the aunt or uncle can cook. Because my mom sent them so much money, they were used to just eating out and never developed the skill. Even when food is cooked at home, she’ll come downstairs, look at the food, and if it doesn’t seem appetizing enough, she’ll throw a fit and just starve instead. So in the end, it doesn’t matter if there is food or not, if it’s not up to her “standards” she’ll just go on a hunger strike.

Rather than raising his kid, my uncle’s basically just thrown his kid to us to raise so he can spend his days smoking and getting drunk. He doesn’t want to work because it’s too hard and in his words “even if I work or not, in the end, your mom’s still going to take care me”. So he’d rather have my mom break her back, picking up second and third jobs just to feed him and his kid rather than picking up his pants and taking care of himself. Also, because his kid skipped school all the time, she’s fucking stupid and below her grade level. We need to send her to summer school to catch up for next year, but that bastard uncle doesn’t want to pay for it because he wants to save that money for his alcohol and cigars.

My mom and Uncle’s wife are the only ones working right now. My dad retired already and I just run errands for them when I get home from classes (like taking them to their doctors appointments or buying groceries). I hate having them in the house. They get to stay home and do as they please while the rest of us have to bend over backwards. If the auntie is hungry, she doesn’t like my cooking so I’d go out and buy what I’d think she’ll like. If she doesn’t like it and throws a fit, I’ll have to go out and buy something else. If my uncle is out of cigarettes, I have to go to the bank and get cash out for him to use (it’s his money but he just doesn’t know how to use the bank system). If his kid is slipping in school, it’s also my job to tutor her to bring her grades up.

I don’t wish they would die or anything. I just wish they never came here (sans the uncle’s wife). I want to be able to be comfortable in my house and do whatever I want. I never asked for this responsibility. It’d be a different story if those people were actually grateful. It makes me want to move out so bad but my mom is begging me to stay to help out, and of course, I can’t make it harder for her.

TLDR: My extended family is living with us and they’re using me like their pack mule.