My wife and I turned 50 years old last year. She and I are the same age. And just recently we decided to leave our children without an inheritance. We have been coming to this for a very long time. It is worth noting that we have always wanted children. My spouse was trying to get pregnant. But for a long time her attempts were in vain. She underwent a long treatment. And only after that we managed to conceive a child. At first a girl was born. Two years later a boy was born. We were very happy.
We loved the children very much. We put a lot of effort into their upbringing. We tried not to be too strict parents. We solved problems at family gatherings. We always trusted our children. We did not control their every step. It is very hard to make me lose my temper. During many years of marriage I almost never fought with my wife. I also tried to make my children understand that all problems can be solved peacefully.
Now I already think that this position of mine was taken by them as a weakness. Maybe I should have watched their behavior more closely. However, in relation to their own children is rarely objective, and do not notice their shortcomings. Moreover, it’s easier to see the problem from the outside. And we looked at our children through the prism of parental love. And that’s why we missed a lot.
One day I got sick and stayed home. My seventeen-year-old daughter didn’t know about it. She came home with a friend. They immediately went into the kitchen. They started drinking alcohol and talking loudly. They were talking about me and my wife. I heard a lot of unflattering things about us that day. My daughter told how she and her brother were stealing money from us. And we idiots don’t even notice it. I was shocked. My legs felt like they were cotton.
My daughter was always nice to me. Called me Daddy. I loved her very much. But when talking to her friend, she often called me insulting words. I thought it was good that my wife wasn’t here. After hearing that, she could have had a nervous breakdown.
I pondered her words for a long time. I tried to justify their meaning somehow. To soften it. But I shouldn’t have fooled myself. It was more than obvious. At one point, I wanted to look into her eyes. I went into the kitchen. Her friend spotted me right away. My daughter sat with her back to me and kept talking. It was only when she heard sounds behind her that she turned around and looked at me with the look of a hunted animal. I did not pay attention to my daughter’s words. I can’t even remember now what she said to me. I just got a bottle of water from the fridge, and walked out.
That night I put a lock on the door of our room. When my wife returned, I told her everything. At the same time, I softened the facts a little bit. Of course, my daughter told her brother everything. From then on they tried to show themselves to be very good. But, it was too late. Maybe my wife and I were overly naive. But, not idiots. After a while, they stopped sucking up. Later, my wife said she noticed a lot of unpleasant things. But she put it down to their adolescence.
It is unfortunate to admit that we have raised mercenary individuals who do not know what empathy, sympathy, kindness is.
When my son turned 18, we sold the big apartment and split up. We bought the children a two-room apartment. But we registered it in our name. We bought an unfinished house for ourselves. And in a year we finished everything there. The kids forgot about us after we split up. My wife and I decided that all the property was left to a charitable organization. Maybe time will pass and they will at least realize their mistake.
