Tell me about it. She always does this kind of thing. I'm guessing (hoping, anyway) that the thing my dad said was just an empty threat. He often says things like that when he's upset, and has said before that he'd continue to support me financially through college as long as I keep good grades, since he doesn't want me to have to balance schoolwork with working to support myself completely independently.

Honestly, I think it may just be better to bite the bullet and go home on the 4th, then have them come over one day on the weekend of my dad's birthday. I was planning on doing Wednesday-Sunday for his birthday, even though I don't really like being home for more than a couple days at a time, so that would have been longer than I'd like to have stayed anyway, but I would have done it for them. Now I don't think I want to. So really, in the end, going home on the 4th ultimately means I'll spend LESS time at home than I would have.

I've started applying for part-time jobs so maybe (hopefully) I'll soon be able to have work as a reason for not coming home. I think the fact that I don't really have any good "reason" for not coming home is part of why they guilt me so much. They aren't quite as bad during the school year when I can claim homework as a reason for not going. If I had more work to do perhaps they'd understand better.