Fiona Leaving

I see a lot of people giving Fiona smack for leaving behind the kids since she ‘fought so hard to be their guardian,’ and I don’t really think that’s fair.Here’s why:Fiona sacrificed pretty much every aspect of her life in order to keep her family together. She had essentially been raising her siblings since early childhood and even dropped out of school at 14 to stay at home full time. She had no choice; the responsibilities of parenthood had been dropped onto her lap by Frank and Monica due to their negligence. Instead of having a social circle, going to school, attending track practice, partying and doing all of the activities most teenagers usually participate in, she stayed at home cooking, cleaning & being a parent to her 5 siblings, all while still being a child herself. She continued to do this till her late twenties/early thirties, when she decided to put herself first for once.Now imagine having your entire childhood and adolescence stolen from you because your parents always put drugs and alcohol before their own children. Imagine trying to raise other people’s children and attempting to protect them from their abuse while also suffering from the abuse of those people. Imagine being burdened with the responsibility of paying bills and keeping a household running when you’re only 14 years old. Imagine having any and all opportunities of living a real life of your own being completely eradicated because doing so could cost said opportunities for the rest of your siblings. Imagine living with the constant stress and fear that your family will be torn apart and put back into the system. Imagine knowing you can never really take a full breath and start making plans for your life till you are in your late thirties or early forties. And through all of this, imagine the person who is supposed to be doing your job lies around all day drinking and doing drugs, never offering you any support whatsoever.Fiona did not have to take on the parenting role. Those kids were always Frank & Monica’s responsibility, not hers. She could’ve easily said fuck it and left years ago on her own self interest - but she didn’t. Why?Because Fiona is a good person.Because she cares for those kids more than Frank or Monica ever could.Because she loves her family and was willing to sacrifice everything in order to keep them together.She became their guardian FOR these reasons. She wanted to protect them from the system and from the carelessness of her parents for as long as she possibly could. Becoming their legal guardian was the only way this could be ensured.It’s completely unfair to demean everything Fiona has done for her siblings just because she decided to do something for herself after nearly 20 odd years of raising them. She did the best that she could for those kids, and considering the vast majority of them are grown up now it’s not that unreasonable for her to start venturing out on her own. At the end of the day she was never supposed to be their parent, none of us are as siblings. But sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.Fiona has worked hard for her family for so long. She deserves to finally have a life of her own. via /r/shameless https://ift.tt/2S5XSYU