But I Don't Want To....

Why oh why must people continue to be Ghetto? When I say this, I'm not speaking of a place in which they live, I am talking about the mentality. You can come from the hood and not be ghetto. You can be poor and have class, because class, my friends, cannot be bought!

I have a cousin, who has been jealous of me all our lives. Our mothers are sisters, so we spent a lot of time together growing up. To this day, she still tries to out do me. It's a constant competition for her. When I bought a house, she had to buy a bigger house. I bought a nice car, she had to buy a more expensive car. I had a kid...She had six...Like I said, it's ridiculous. She can't see the forest for the trees, as my grandmother used to say. She can't be me, on her best day! She is jealous of my friends...My job...My sense of style...Just everything about me. As she lets it be known. Like I said, I am a class act. It's just in me. You either have it, or you don't...And she's trying to buy it, and can't figure out why with the money, it still doesn't come. But that's my cousin, and I love her in spite of her silly ways.

I threw my daughter a big bash for her last birthday, so of course, she had to throw and even bigger one for one of her kids. I took my daughter the birthday party on Saturday. I posted previously about my cousin 'Gold-digger", who has 6 kids, by six different daddies, and lives off the child support. Now I can't knock her for what she's doing because she takes care of her kids very well financially. But mentally...That's a different story. I think she is partially to blame, but for men to see what she's doing and continue to impregnate her...That is beyond my logic. The girl has a very nice house, nice ride, and she and her kids are draped in nothing but the best. She's what we call hood rich....Living the high life without earning the money. She has six kids, and looks as if she hasn't had one. She a bad b**** physically! I'll give her credit for that.

I have never seen so many gold teeth, rims, and bling in one place in my life. I like bling as much as the next person, but it was out of control. I was dizzy by the time I left. The party started out nice. She had this huge setup in her back yard. There were clowns , and bubble machines, a magician, a bounce house, pony rides...She spared no expense. There were so many kids there. It was worse than Chucky Cheese's on a Saturday. I felt like I was at a carnival. All of her baby's daddy's showed up with their other kids as well. The party started late in the afternoon...You know we never start on time.

I got there around 5:00, and as soon as I got there, she put me to work( that's why I was late on purpose). The kids had a ball. I must admit, I was having a good time too. She asked if I could stay and help her clean up, and since she is family, I told her that I didn't mind. Little did I know, the party was about to take a dramatic turn.

The sun went down, and more people started to show up, but they had no kids. They had on their best, club outfits with drinks in hand, and were ready to party. Now I don't know about you, but I don't party with my kid. Don't get me wrong, I love to have a good time, but there is a time and place for everything. They cleared tables in the back yard, started drinking, playing cards and dominos, cranked up the music, and it was on. My cousin was the ring leader, dancing in the middle of the yard, with two of her daughters droppin'' it like it's hot. My kid was in shock. Now I know she catches a glimpse of the videos on BET from time to time, so she is not in the dark by far. She has just never experienced seeing all this go on first hand, with adults that she knows. It was a mess to me. There were kids all over the place, and the adults were going on about their business as if they were not even there. Now some things should not be done in the presence of kids, and I felt the need to get out of there.

I walked to my cousin and told her that we were leaving. She looked at me and said, in her naturally, whiney voice, "but who's gonna help me clean up?" I told her to call me when she wrapped things up. She was not happy, but I got my kid and got the h*** out of there. When we got in the car, my daughter asked, " Mom, why was that man grabbing and hitting that ladies' bottom like that? Was he mad at her? " I just turned the stereo up and drove all the way home without a word because I had no clue of how to explain that s*** to my kid.

Now my cousin had the nerve to call me at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and say, "Alright girl, everyone's gone home...You coming?" I could still hear kids in the background. I just hung up the phone and rolled over. I called her back at about 9:30 and told her I would come over after church. She was okay with it.

Her place was a mess. All of those people showed up, and no one helped her clean up. It looked like a tornado hit her house and yard. She has her kids "trained well", so her house is normally clean. I put on my gloves, let out a long sigh, and started cleaning. It took us about 4 hours. We sent the kids in the back yard to pick up all the paper. I ended up having to clean the carpet in her family room because they had messed it up so bad. I told her that the next time I would not be so nice.

She has low self-esteem, and she does things for people to like her. I told her, the same way that she takes a stance with her kids daddy's to pay child support, she needs to take a stance for people to respect her house. She gave me a sheepish look and I rolled my eyes at her, and continued cleaning. We finally finished and I was tired, so I hugged her and all the kids, and went home. I said to myself...Never again...But I know the next time she has a party for one of those rugrats, I'll be right there. It's crazy what we put ourselves through for people that we love.

I took a long hot bath and "Mr Magic Hands" (my Boo), came over and gave me a massage until I fell asleep. I was glad to be back in my comfort zone.

Have you even done something that you really didn't want to do for someone that you cared about?