Turn On The Cooling

I feel like a lot of young adults still living at home would relate to what I’m about to say: it gets to a point in life where dealing with your parents’ weird quirks just gets to be too much. I first noticed this feeling when I turned twenty and my parents would do little things that would really grind my gears. These were things that they had always done, but as I was growing more independent and cultivating my own opinions, I realised how much these quirks annoyed me.

The quirk that annoyed me the most was my parents’ weird obsession with not having the air conditioner on. If it’s thirty five degrees outside, I seriously do not understand what the issue is with turning on the central air con. Servicing close to Highett is a breeze thanks to local skilled trades being readily available every day of the week. It can be a hot summer but that doesn’t mean we have to be hot ourselves! I put up with this for three more years before I simply couldn’t take it anymore and moved out. It wasn’t a reflection of my relationship with my parents, it was just that I had formulated my own opinions and needs and they didn’t align with the practices put in place in my home. 

When I moved out with housemates, the first thing I did was check that our views aligned regarding what an appropriate temperature to turn the cooling on was. This was very important to me, seeing as it was one of the reasons I moved out of my very comfortable and superior childhood home in the first place. Thankfully, the apartment we moved into had just had it’s regularly scheduled air conditioning repairs. Malvern locals of my age group apparently don’t have any issues turning the cooling on like my parents do, so it was an absolute blessing to have the chill blasting all summer and have no one tell me to turn it off. 

Moving out was a fantastic decision because I was ready to do so. I visit my parents every week and the house is always too warm, but it will always feel like home.