Readers' Request: Shannon’s Story
Shannon’s family seems perfect from the outside, but something is definitely off. Her dad is working long hours and never home for dinner, her mom seems spacey and critical and clingy at the same time, and her sister Tiffany seems kind of down and weird but also obsessed with her little garden. Shannon is trying to maintain her own perfection, though, because if she ends the year with a good enough GPA, she gets to go on a trip to Paris. (Oui, she leads a charmed life.) Well, charmed except that she feels like she’s baby-sitting her own mom and she realizes that something at home is a bit empty.
And Shannon’s mom is acting weird. She spends Maria’s whole swim meet talking to the coach, she buys herself and Shannon matching mother-daughter dresses (which Shannon hates), and she’s being extra critical and touchy. Shannon’s dad, too, seems to not know about anything going on at home or in his daughters’ lives. Shannon can’t wait to go to Paris where she can have an adventure on her own. Except… all of a sudden, Shannon’s mom signs up to be a chaperone on the Paris trip, and now Shannon doesn’t want to go at all. I mean, it seems like Shannon’s mom is feeling neglected by her husband and is really leaning into being A MOM, hence all the smothering energy she’s sending Shannon’s way. I should text Mrs. Kilbourne a discount code for TalkSpace.
On Mother’s Day, Shannon pulls it together with her sisters to try to make it a nice day for her mom. But her dad forgets and goes golfing, then gets caught giving her mother an emergency present from his office that says “happy birthday.” (Oops.) They all go out to lunch, but Shannon has to wear her matching mother-daughter dress, which she hates. Then she snaps at her mom after they argue about whether or not Shannon is studying enough for her exams. Shannon finally realizes how to solve one problem… she purposely flunks her French exam so she doesn’t have to go on the Paris trip and be chaperoned by her mom. Yikes!
Shannon’s mom, though, is committed as a chaperone, so she’s still going on the trip. And Shannon gets to stay home and be in charge of her sisters. Um… Shannon, you got the raw end of this deal. Shannon comes to realize, though, why her mother became over-interested in her life: boredom. Without people around the house needing stuff, and with the housework taken care of, and no school/job… there was nothing to do. Shannon and her sisters decide to put together a welcome-home party for their mom, and Shannon clues her dad in to the fact that she thinks her mother is lonely.
“I wondered if it was possible that my family - and my mother and father - cared about each other more than I realized? That they’d just gotten locked into patterns that kept them from saying so, from showing it?” - Shannon, page 135
When Shannon’s mother returns, her father greets her with roses at the airport, and they all have a nice family dinner and Shannon has a talk with her mother. They both agree that having a job outside the home would help Shannon’s mom have a sense of purpose and give her daughters space. So, all’s well that ends well, but from now on Shannon will always be ~the girl who didn’t go to Paris~.
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