I have 'inherited' my step father, who has no one else now mum died. Mum died earlier in the year, and he has been desperate to go to his home country to see his brothers since then, so have brought him as he will not go places by himself that he is not familiar with. It has been a week, and I want to throttle him.
He does not take responsibility for anything to make this trip run smoothly. If we need something at the shops, he will stride in ahead of me after I park, and then I will find him in the check out line having picked up his paper but leaving it to me to get whatever item we need. He has not loaded anything into the dishwasher or washed anything up. In fact he leaves his dirty pots on top of it to be put away. He wont make any plans unless it is about seeing his brothers, so on the days we don't see them, he has no suggestions about what we should do. Oh and is happy to stroll into the house when we get home leaving me to get all the stuff out of the car.
All that would be annoying enough but he also feels free to comment on what I do, how I drive and what I should do or not. The kicker was the other day when I was driving into a bed, being cautious and careful, and was met by a speeding driver coming the other way who was over the centre line and on my side of the road. I slammed on the brakes and avoided a collision only to have my step dad say 'Oh, Smashing' in sorrowful tones, as if I had done the worst thing possible.
I get he is old, he is grieving and he is a different generation - but really? Is this just normal patriarchal training or is he particularly taking the piss. How can men be so simultaneously entitled and useless?