Dealing with my mom is kinda strange. Different than most people's parents.
She says her head is like a house with a lot of people living in it. When I talk to her, I'm talking to whoever is at the door of the house. So the person at the door is kinda busy paying attention to me, and doesn't always see what everyone else behind her is up to. She might not even be sure who else is home at the time, because she says there's lots of rooms and other doors, and that people go in and out of the house, or go to other rooms to rest or sleep. She says she may even have people in her head that she never even met!
Sometimes she has trouble telling who is at the front door -- also called "in Front". When she starts talking like a child, I know it's someone young, and when she starts bossing me around I know it's someone older. Sometimes we both can tell who she is.
But not everyone in there thinks they're my mom. They all think their body gave birth to me, and they all know they have a responsibility to take care of me, but they don't all think they gave birth to me or raised me as their child. Some of the younger kids think of me as something more like a sister or a friend that they have to keep an eye on, and some of the people who don't come to Front often think that I'm the body's child but not their child. She says it's confusing, but that everyone is very fond of me and loves me and cares about me and wants to make sure I'm happy and healthy. They just each do it differently.
At first this was all very confusing to me, but I guess I have different feelings about my Mom's residents, too. Someone in there likes to read stories at bedtime and always makes up funny voices for all the different characters in the story and is really good at it, but someone else doesn't really and isn't very good at it. But that person takes extra time out to help me with my homework or explain things to me; I guess she's more serious. Another person will let me eat almost anything I want and goes through the extra trouble of cooking something different for me from what else she's cooking, but someone else thinks I ought to eat what the adults are eating for dinner because then it takes less time and there are less dishes to clean. Some don't care if I stay up late reading, and others want me to get a lot of good rest at night so I'm healthy and fresh in the morning. Sometimes my mom can't seem to make up her mind!
She says she doesn't think those things are worth having fights over, and that she doesn't want headaches trying to play tug-of-war with things that aren't very important decisions, so she just lets each person in her head make their own mind up about those things. Other things she says they actually have to have a meeting about, and they have a special room in the house for meetings. The person at the front door has to go to the meeting, so she says she either sits really still for a while, or she meditates, which she says is a little like having a daydream with your eyes closed.
Mom says that she does very well for a multiple, and not all multiples know that there are other people in the house -- it's like running around with the lights out and bumping into the furniture. She says people like that are usually confused and scared, and have trouble making decisions as a group because they don't know they ought to have meetings about important things.
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