I never wanted to be like her
Always complaining and never solving
Making others push her around in a wheelchair when she could still walk
Never taking her medication even as she complains about her failing health.
As I got older, I stopped wanting to be like him too.
Never visiting the doctor
Always making excuses for his aches
He let his body fall apart
Too afraid to admit he needed help.
I was glad they made me independent
They taught me not to make excuses
They taught me to work harder to be like everyone else
They taught me to get a stool when I was too short
They taught me to go to doctors and take my medicine
They taught me to be better than they were.
I wake up at 8 am
I take my pills at 9am
I wear my brace
I wear my prosthetics
I wear a smile
I need help, but
If I fall apart
I can put myself back together
I feel sorry for them
I want to help them
I know I can’t
They gave strength
They gave me choices
They gave me what they didn’t have
Thanks mom and dad ❤️
Unruly Bodies 
This was an interesting post. It is good that you are independent and not careless, so you are able to take care of yourself. It is also good that you don’t want to be someone you maybe have looked up to in the past, so you are able to create your own path.
Beautifully written, thank you so much for sharing!
We are constantly learning in this world, especially absorbing information in our early lives from our caretakers and providers. They’re our first glimmer of adulthood, they’re our superheroes and our super villains. It’s a give and take though – take a little good, give a little bad. But at the end of the day, it’s still thanks Mom and Dad 🙂 See, I can rhyme too! Thanks again.
Hi,
I really enjoyed reading your post. I can’t imagine the amount of pain and hard feelings you might have experienced. Through your impactful words, the way you learned valuable life lessons is showed. Being a caretaker is considered emotional and physical labor and it seems like you have been doing this for a long time. Because they are your parents I’m sure you must have felt obligated which is why it the last two lines are so meaningful. “They gave me what they didn’t have. Thanks mom and dad” displays how they unknowingly taught you values that they didn’t have but you are so grateful even though you had no other choice but to service them.
Hey, Your post was very different and interesting. Ive never come across such great poetry. You started talking about a cause an affect. Your cause was that you were learning and trying to find yourself along the way. The affect was that you found yourself with the help of mom and dad which is very sentimental.
This was great I loved the style in which you put it in. Finding that we grow out of the idolization of our parents without losing the love for them. Understanding they are people with flaws and that their choices don’t have to be our choices learning from them to become that independent person and making our own path taking the options they give us and moving forward very well done. I look forward to reading another post from you.
I like how you took a spin on the assignment and wrote a poem I feel like it tells more of a story and leaves the reader to I guess fill in the blanks kind of, and immerse themselves in your position. There was also an opifiny moment in there where you said you was going to be better than the people than before you and not ignore your pain, well that is at least what I got from it, and I can relate to that because since I was younger and it took me all the way until I got to college to realize how toxic my environment was because of the fact I would be told to walk off physical pain or told that mental pain wasn’t real or my favorite “your ancestors when through far worse you can handle whatever is going on” and it also took me learning that getting help isn’t something to be ashamed about.
I just wanted to say, this was awesome. Totally changing the “blog format” to a poem was exciting to read. I also relate deeply to everything you said and feel heard.
Toxic parents are extremely difficult to deal with and it’s a really good thing you’ve become self sufficient despite what you were taught. Being sick recently, I discovered my reluctance to visiting the doctor. The anxiety and guilt that filled my body just for going, when I had a legitimate reason. When my parents split and dad got full custody, the doctors visits became obsolete. We had state insurance so there were no copays, prescriptions were fully covered. There was no reason to not go. “They won’t do anything anyway.”
After the pandemic, it’s extremely important to go because we learned how dangerous illness can be. A doctor’s visit no longer became only about me but about ensuring I wasn’t contagious with something that could essentially kill a family. My family believes “there’s no cure for covid so why go to the doctor.”
Leaving that environment has been the best thing that ever happened to me.