Chapter 5: Difficult family situation

Also at the same time I was super pissed off with Greg's brother and stupid girlfriend. Who, I guess I was pissed off at for not helping out with his own parents enough, and saying that Francoise was too difficult so they wanted to avoid her....but 3 things they did made me super mad:

1) they finally bother to visit Françoise and Serge and it was at short notice so we thought it would be nice to all go over to Francoise 's house and have lunch together. Francoise is not much of a cook and now living on her own doesn't really bother to keep a stocked fridge for visitors....so we made a quick quiche and came over (most of the stuff brought from the local Biocoop which sells only organic stuff and sourced locally where possible, or just organic stuff from the supermarket) we put brought it over, put it in the kitchen where Ronan and Fanny were making a quiche!!!! They asked what we put in it. We said onions, courgette, goats cheese blah blah, and back came some very arrogant mocking about courgettes not being in season....and something about greenhouses being bad for the environment. Which may be true but I found this a bit rich coming from people whose career choice is to be an "artist" and fly around the world touring (no carbon offset mind) and have elected to do IVF, which is hardly a sustainable option.

2) when Francoise was really ill, and still not sleeping despite Serge now being in the care home, we had tried to encourage her to take the antidepressants and sleeping pills to help her recover from her insomnia....but she didn't value our advice and input, despite us moving from the UK to try and help her. She instead listened to Ronan, who said she shouldn't take them because they can be addictive. Fuck the addiction, that woman needed sleep. And Ronan didn't bother even talking with us as to what would be best for Francoise...he just went and gave his opinion (these guys have no idea how to deal with parents!) and he wasn't seeing her everyday and how bad she was.

3) Ronan refused to help bathe his dad. Or clean him up after accidents. I offered to help, but Greg and Francoise wouldn't let me, but they would let a stranger do it in the care home.... Apparently, Ronan couldn't bathe his dad because that was not his job. It was the parent’s job to look after their children, not the other way around. I personally find this kind of attitude is abhorrent. And this is the person who will at some point develop the same disease and will need to be cared for. Well...I don't think his own kid would do it... Anyway, I'm now realising that I disagree with a lot of the Moinet family values.

 

N.B. It is apparent that Gregoire Moinet finds this piece of text insulting, threatening and offensive to him and his family. This text is my opinion of what has happened. I believe I am entitled to my opinion. I fail to see how I am threatening the physical safety of Greg, his mum, his dad or brother by offering my opinion on what has happened. If I am guilty of anything, it is not intervening earlier when I felt that Serge was not receiving appropriate care (due to refusing to accept or organise home visits to assist with Serge's care needs) and was being verbally abused in his own home. 

N.B.B. I am also aware that Asian culture has very strong family values, which I have been exposed to and indoctrinated in, from a young age. This is sometimes in contrast to the more "individualistic" attitude of western/European culture, which can often appear selfish and egotistical from my distorted asian perspective, but I am not naive enough to believe that it is so black and white. I know that there are western/european families who are very close knit and are incredibly supportive of each other, and that there are complex family issues which mean that asian families can be incredibly fractured and have huge rifts. people are complex. family dynamics are complex. What I think is right, someone else is going to think is obviously wrong, or not right for them.