How I Became The Family IT Department

The Feral Truth: Every family has an IT department. Ours just happens to be exhausted and running on iced coffee.

I don't remember applying for this position.

There wasn't an interview.

Nobody discussed salary.

There were certainly no benefits.

Yet somehow, over the last few years, I have become the official IT department for my entire family.

Need a password reset?

Call me.

Patient portal locked?

Call me.

Can't find the email?

Call me.

Phone doing something weird?

Call me.

Television refusing to cooperate?

Call me.

Printer communicating directly with Satan?

Definitely call me.

At first, it seemed harmless.

A quick question here.

A quick fix there.

Then one day I looked up and realized I was managing enough usernames and passwords to gain access to a small government agency.

Every healthcare system has its own portal.

Every portal has its own password requirements.

Every password requires:

one uppercase letter

one lowercase letter

one symbol

one number

the blood of a mythical creature

and your firstborn child

Naturally, none of them can be the same.

Which feels personal.

Somewhere along the way I stopped being a person and became technical support.

I've spent hours helping people log into accounts that I didn't create for websites I didn't design to solve problems I didn't cause.

And the truly horrifying part?

I'm good at it now.

Not because I'm tech-savvy.

Because repeated exposure eventually becomes expertise.

The same thing happened with caregiving.

And insurance.

And medical records.

And hospital systems.

Apparently my superpower is being trapped in situations long enough to become competent.

I'd like a different superpower.

Flying seems nice.

Yours in chaos,

~Kari, The Feral Caregiver