My Normal
I’m Jake from Sheffield and I was born 15th of May 2000. I was the second child out of three and the only boy, you have no idea how many times I had to sit there and let my sisters put make-up on me.
Growing up I thought I had a normal childhood; it was when I was twelve my youngest sister asked something that scared me. You see when I say I thought I had a normal childhood, my childhood was filled with watching my parents argue. I didn’t know what a ‘normal’ family was, the constant arguing was my normal. So, when my sister asked me, “Are mum and dad gonna break up?” after they had another argument. That was the first time I realised my family wasn’t normal.
The years of arguing finally caught up to my mum and she fell into a great depression, turning to alcohol for help. Unhappy with his marriage my dad would come home late into the evening, it was obvious what he was doing. But he was too ashamed to admit it to his three children that he was a cheating man. I sometimes would purposely skip school to work as my mum drank herself out of a job, money quickly became tight.
One morning, my dad had gone to work, and he never came back. I asked his co-workers if they had seen him, but his very empty wardrobe made it obvious he had jumped the boat. My older sister, who had previously moved away for university, moved back in and worked night and day so I could focus on getting through college.
When college was finally over, I decided against university because my mum approached me saying she wanted to get soba again. She signed up for support groups and annual doctor check-ups, I attended everything with her. She has been soba for over a year now, it was difficult for her but I’m so proud of her.
I recently found out why the arguing got so bad, my dad had been cheating on my mum for years. But she was too scared to let him go because she wanted her kids to have a father figure in their lives. She sacrificed her happiness for us and suffered so much because of it. If I could turn back time I would because she deserves the world.
