CRYBABIES R US

There's a family I know that lives in a stately mansion with many rooms. It's a large, extended family, with both natural-born as well as adopted siblings. Though the rooms are spread throughout this spacious living area, most family members have chosen to live on opposite ends as they don't see eye to eye on very many things. It's not your typical family though, as Mommy and Daddy don't share the running of the household - rather, they switch roles every so often, with one assuming the role of head honcho while the other does all they can to work against their counterpart until their chance comes round to being in charge again. You see, Mommy and Daddy were separated a long time ago, but rather than leaving both opted instead to hang around and give each other 'hell'.

In this dysfunctional family, the many children living under their care don't communicate too well with each other, with one large group choosing to live in the Mommy wing and another large number rooming in the Daddy wing. What's even stranger though, is that the members of this very large, extended family are well past their teenage years. For some reason these 'juvenile' adults would rather cry and complain to Mommy that she must support them when they are out of a job, make sure they have healthcare and take care of them when they are ready to retire. At the same time other immature 'non-minors' insist that Daddy prevent any member of the household from exercising their free will over ingesting any food or substance into their own body, or deciding for themselves whether to engage in any activity of their own choosing with or without any other family member. And the more fearful from within each of the groups call on both Daddy and Mommy to provide the illusion of safety by going over to the property of neighbors in far-away locations to preemptively clobber them just in case they had any thoughts of coming across to the mansion to harm anyone.

Of course, all these misguided efforts cost money. But neither Mommy nor Daddy wants to be the one to let their 'babies' know the true cost or that one day the piper will be coming around to collect on his loans. But if you take a close look, you can see that the once magnificent structure now sports fairly large cracks in its foundation and that some walls have already started to crumble. While both 'parents' know that the structure will one day soon come tumbling down, they each keep that fact from the children, hoping that it will happen on the other partner's watch, and so avoid being blamed. Meanwhile another group of siblings has opened its eyes to the true state of the home-front, refusing to align itself with either of the crybabies on the left or crybabies on the right. For pointing out the terminal shortcomings of both parents, they find themselves exposed to not only the wrath of both Mommy and Daddy, but also to the ire of the spoilt-brat 'adults' who would prefer to continue in their blissful delusion that the household can/should continue to control every aspect of their childish lives, whilst avoiding ever having to face up to the reality of the doorbell ringing.

The doorbell will ring one day though - likely when the family least expects it. Though by then there may not be much of an abode left to live in and both parents will very likely have exited center stage. Will these crybabies finally start paying for their own lunch? Will they be mature enough to avoid the temptation to control their brothers and sisters lives and instead grow to realize that every adult must be allowed to pursue happiness as only they see fit? Indeed, will the crybabies ever grow up?

We don't have very much longer to wait before all of us come face to face with the answer.