My Family Said They Didn’t Need My Help—so I Stopped Helping.

She stepped through the doorway and her whole face changed. The smell hit her first I could tell by how her nose wrinkled up.

Then her eyes went wide taking in the kitchen with green fuzzy stuff growing on plates stacked everywhere and trash bags piled up against the wall with flies buzzing around them.

Cian stood there in that same crusty PE shirt from 5 days ago with huge yellow stains under the arms.

The social worker pulled out her tablet right away and started taking pictures of everything. Mom just stood there frozen like a statue while the camera clicked over and over.

The woman walked through the living room taking more photos of the pizza boxes on the floor and the mountain of dirty laundry covering the couch.

She opened the fridge and stepped back when she saw it was completely empty except for a moldy container of something that used to be leftovers.

Mom finally snapped out of it and started talking real fast.

“This is just a bad week were usually much more organized than this.”

She claimed.

The social worker turned to her with this look that said she wasn’t buying it.

“Mrs. Williams we’ve received multiple reports from your children’s school over the past two weeks about ongoing concerns.”

She pulled up something on her tablet.

“Your son has been wearing the same clothes for days your daughter showed up to her recital in inappropriate attire both children have complained of hunger to their teachers.”

Mom’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.

“I need to speak with each child separately starting with Jasmine.”

The social worker said.

She pointed to the dining room table that was actually clear because I’d been doing my homework there. Mom started to follow us but the woman held up her hand.

“Privately Mrs. Williams.”

She stated.

We sat down and she gave me this soft look.

“Jasmine I understand there’s been some changes in your household recently.”

She said.

I pulled out my phone and showed her the agreement saved in my photos.

“My mom made me sign this two weeks ago.”

I explained.

Her eyebrows went up as she read through it.

“She forced you to sign this?”

She asked.

I nodded.

“She said I was making everything about myself and that I needed to stick to sibling duties only.”

I told her.

The woman typed notes on her tablet.

“What exactly were you doing before this agreement?”

She asked.

I took a deep breath.

“Everything.”

I replied.

She looked up at me.

“Can you be more specific?”

So I started listing it all out.

“I woke them up every morning at 6:30 made breakfast packed lunches made sure they had clean clothes helped with homework every night cooked dinner did all the laundry paid the bills online because mom doesn’t understand the computer scheduled their doctor appointments went to parent teacher conferences when mom was too busy.”

The social worker’s fingers flew across her tablet screen.

“How long have you been doing all this?”

She asked.

I did the math in my head.

“Since I was 9.”

I answered.

She stopped typing.

“9 years old?”

She asked.

I nodded.

“Mom had a new boyfriend who didn’t like kids around so she was gone a lot.”

I explained.

The woman asked about specific things and I told her everything.

I told her how I taught Tara about her period when she got it because mom didn’t even notice. I explained how I had to forge mom’s signature on permission slips because she never remembered.

I told her how I learned to cook from YouTube videos because we couldn’t afford takeout every night and mom only knew how to make cereal.

She asked to see Tara next and my sister came in with her hair all tangled and wearing a shirt with food stains down the front.

The social worker asked her how things had been lately and Tara just burst into tears.

“I’m so hungry all the time,”

She sobbed.

“Mom doesn’t buy groceries and I don’t have lunch money and the only thing I know how to make is cereal but we ran out of milk.”

She told the woman about the recital and how everyone laughed at her dress.

“Jasmine always made sure it was clean and pressed but now nobody does it and mom didn’t even know it needed to be dry cleaned.”

She admitted she didn’t know how to work the washing machine or the stove or even how to properly wash her hair because I’d always helped her with everything.

Cian came in next looking annoyed like this was wasting his time. The social worker asked him about his clothes situation.

“Yeah I’ve been wearing this for a while,”

He shrugged.

“I don’t know how to do laundry.”

She asked him to explain and he got defensive.

“Nobody ever taught me okay Jasmine always just did it.”

He told her about failing his exam because nobody woke him up and how mom didn’t even know what classes he was taking.

“She tried to help with my math homework yesterday but she didn’t know what algebra was.”

The social worker asked about meals and he said they’d been eating a lot of cereal and whatever snacks were left from before.

“I used the last of my birthday money on McDonald’s yesterday.”

Finally it was mom’s turn and she went in there with her head high like she was going to fix everything.

We could hear parts of it from the living room. The social worker was asking about schedules and mom not knowing what time school started.