“I received a job offer of a lifetime, but it was in Florida, and I was currently residing in Ohio. Ohio is where my parents reside. Both Florida, where we were relocating, and Ohio are home to my wife’s relatives. The Florida family members welcomed us to remain at their home until we could find our own place once we moved down there as a base to concentrate on transporting all of our belongings across the country.
On my wife’s side of the family, everyone was quite encouraging. Although they were sorry to see us go, they were coming to visit us for Thanksgiving and we would move up after Christmas.
They were all incredibly pleased of me for accepting the job offer, and they couldn’t wait for us to have a family.
After telling my parents, I got a call right away and spent an hour being yelled at, called a disappointment, and told that I was ruining my life and that moving away from family would be horrible. They agreed that I had been offered my ideal position, but they suggested that I focus more of my job search on local positions rather than those in other states. And that I couldn’t run back to them in tears if things didn’t work out.
Just after I hung up with my parents, my wife’s family in Florida called to congratulate me.
My wonderful stepmother-in-law spent two hours calming me down after I started weeping, assuring me that she would always have my back in the event that my job didn’t work out for any reason, and assisting me in organizing my entire move into manageable steps for my ADHD goblin brain.
Those two conversations solidified my choice to relocate. I was still a little taken aback by my parents’ actions and furious. I was seriously considering calling the cops to come get me so I could grab my things since I didn’t feel secure going there. I would merely say, “Forget it, keep the stuff,” but I would not hand over the violin I had spent more than $2,000 on.
My mother is a teacher, and my father is a school psychologist. I’m in awe of folks who devote their life to working with children and would treat their own children in this manner.
