The Summer I Stopped Being a Kid
At thirteen, Jamal became the primary caregiver for his younger siblings for a summer. He looks back on what that did to his sense of childhood.
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About the contributor
Jamal now coaches youth sports on the weekends.
How it started
My mom picked up a second job that summer, and someone had to be home with my younger brother and sister. I was the oldest, so it became me, without much of a conversation about it.
Learning to cook for three
I burned a lot of rice that first month. By August I could make dinner for three kids out of whatever was in the cabinet, and I was proud of that in a complicated way.
What I skipped
I look back at photos from that summer and I'm not in very many of them, because I was usually the one holding the camera, or the baby, or both.
How I think about it now
I don't resent that summer. But I'm careful now to let my own kids be as unburdened as they can be, for as long as they can be.