Outside our shores there is such a thing as turning 18 and having the preconditioned knowledge that it's time to scram and get the hell out of your parents' home.
They've done enough feeding and paying for your education, which you hopefully translates itself into a degree and a great job, which means "pack your bag, rent an apartment and GET OUT!" heheheh ok maybe it's not THAT tragic but it's definitely very different to how we're used to things here in Malta.
Here we get the ‘spoil me rotten' treatment. The following is mostly applicable to the island of Malta : After your mother's gone through, what many like to call the miracle of life experience, which loosely translated is like ‘shooting out a bowling ball' (a description given to me by a friend) together with your father, they both raise you, feed you, throw your ‘themed' birthday party every year, contribute towards your education, organise your graduation party, buy you a car, see you off to your job interview in hope of you coming back with a great salary and then the waiting game begins!
"When is she/he going to leave?" they ask themselves. "He has a great job, yes earns a great pay, he's also just bought a brand new car and bought an apartment which he's renting out....but he still lives with us" I overheard a woman say at a launch last week.
"Sure he does!" I thought to myself, the perks are endless when you think about it and the following is a manifestation of our parents here in Malta.
Why you just gotta love our parents:
1. It's nice to have parents you can look up to. It was nice for me having a father who was quite well known in the football scene. People used to ask me "so are you Oliver Losco's daughter?... he's got a powerful header! I was always so proud of him and when they interviewed him after a game and I'd see him on the sports news, it was the best feeling on earth! I'm still proud of how fit he keeps himself at 53 years of age!
2. When you crash your car, dad's always on speed dial. "Pa, Hbat..."...."arani gej" he'll quickly say and be on his way.
3. Even on this tiny island many have daddy pay for this and that!!! Good luck to them for having that perk! I just pity the dads that have to go through the begging or the "can I, can I can I?" Did you know that parents usually give up after 9 requests?...just thought you'd like to know that ....Daddies out there safe guard yourselves!!!
4. Your room always looks very different to how you've left it in the morning. Back in secondary school, I'd always enter my room with the suspicion that I'd entered the wrong house. When I left home for school every morning my bed used to be undone, clothes were all over the place and papers from the day before cluttered my desk. On my return mum would've cleared all that up and left me a note saying, "please get some milk" which I think was the least I could do next to everything she managed to fit into a day, even after a KM101. (Mum's a purser, who flies to different countries almost daily, a KM100 is a flight to London for which she needs to be up by 4am and returns at 4pm later that day)
5. Dad's always find time for EVERYTHING!!! My father leaves the house at 7am, works all day, gets home at 6pm, goes to visit his mother (my grandmother) who now suffers from dimentia, comes home eats dinner. Helps my mother with some chores and is now is also studying.
6. Parents are always there to nurse your cold. I still remember waking up with red eyes and a sore throat and giving mum and dad the puppy eyes. Instantly they'd start the ‘healing process,' which included a hot bath, change of bed linen, mum's fantastic chicken broth and dad's stand up comedy show.
7. They're a great test bench for a ‘no go' outfit. I'll tell you how it works. My dad has a running joke about my skirts, it goes...."oh look have you put the hem up?....OR.....mind you don't trip in that skirt......OR did you forget to wear your skirt?" To me, all the above comments mean that I look perfectly fine and I proceed to leave the house! Hehehe. If my mother says "Gee you look pretty dear" I run straight upstairs and change, if she then says " what the hell have you got on?" I leave the house yelling " ciao see you when the sun comes up!"
8. Parents ‘think' they know EXACTLY what you're going to do next....so when you do something totally different you always surprise them. If it's a "Surprise" kind of surprise, like a birthday party they don't know about OR you pass your exams they're pleasantly moved. If it's the "sur-priiiisee" that almost gives her a heart attack like the "mum , dad I'm preggers" or "dad....you know how I like using your car...." There's a big drama but then they're the quickest to forgive you.
9. They're always there to get you through the S*** times. I still remember at the beginning of my career, I was once playing a club night in Gozo and these three girls kept taunting me and laughing every time I passed them to go to the toilet. My nerves and anger got the best of me and I had words with them. (Please note this is the ONLY time I'd ever done this!) Flustered and in tears I walked towards backstage, where my parents were waiting. My dad asked in concern "what's wrong? Why are you crying?" I told him about the girls and he replied "you should have heard the abuse we got at the stadium and the names we got called by rival supporters or our own supporters!" "So true," I thought to myself and I understand it better now, what with my partner playing for the same team my dad used to play for!
10. When your parents stick together through years and years of marriage, showing you that it IS possible to live with the same person for so many years and still be in love, communicate and through thick or thin.