"By the time I was 12 years old I was babysitting four nights a week on an easy week when there weren't any weddings in town. I was never paid, never thanked, never knew there was anything strange about leaving a preteen alone with as many as nine or 10 kids at night."
"I came home from school every day to an empty house to watch Three's Company and make myself Ritz crackers and peanut butter until someone came home. I never knew our family's working hours because it was never any of my business."
"Until I became a mom myself. Until I imagined my kids being left to run wild, left to put themselves to bed every night like I did for years. Only then did it hit me: I was raised without tenderness. I was not really raised at all."
A Gen X childhood involved extensive caregiving responsibilities starting at age eight, including babysitting multiple children nightly without compensation, preparing meals, forging parental signatures, and managing household tasks independently. The narrator accepted this as normal family life, never questioning the lack of adult supervision or parental involvement. Only upon becoming a parent did the realization emerge that this upbringing lacked tenderness and proper parental guidance. The experience reflects a broader generational pattern where children essentially raised themselves with minimal adult oversight, attention, or emotional support, despite being surrounded by adults who prioritized their own lives and interests.
Read at Scary Mommy
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