for the past, say, three or four years of my nephew’s five year life i’ve been taking care of him pretty regularly. it’s not been entirely fair to either of us but i’ve grown hopelessly attached to the kid and for better or worse i’m in this for the long haul with him. my sister is present, but she’s a bit insane and not exactly as stable as she ought to be for him. a good example of this lies in the fact that i’ve got to go to the first day of kindergarten with him so i can talk to his teacher, because my family is worried that my sister won’t (he’s got a speech impediment she’s done nothing to help him with and i want him to get help before he gets teased for it). anyways the other day i was talking to my friend group and the topic of me not going out because of him came up. they told me he wasn’t my kid and it isn’t my problem. which is true!! he isn’t my kid and it shouldn’t be my problem, and realistically i know i can go out and he’ll be okay, but a part of me aches a little because while that’s true, it’s also true that in many ways he is mine. i couldn’t explain to them in a way that they could understand that he needs me and i know i deserve to live my 20s but here is this little boy who has done nothing wrong and i’ve got to be there for him. even though i dont, even though his mom is there, because she isn’t, not always, and i need him to know he’ll always have someone. i guess it was just kind of frustrating because i couldn’t explain it and they couldn’t understand it and it hurt my feelings a little that they acted as though he was something i could just push aside (even though realistically i could)