When you're a different person than your parents

Was at the parents' place for Easter the other day. Someone, my wife perhaps, brings up "Dancing with the Stars." My mother's eyes light up. For the next 10 minutes or so, we get just a stream of consciousness celebrity gossip and trash culture lecture. How the guy in "Twilight" is "So sexy!" and how Madonna needs to take care of kids over here, not just in Africa, and how Britney and K-Fed were caught sleeping together, allegedly, and on and on and on ...

Nothing out of the ordinary for her, really. Any time there are relationship issues or family issues in our circle, they get compared to celebrities in the news. When my brother got a divorce, she would constantly say things like, "Well, you know, when Brad and Jen separated ..."

Anyway, Easter Sunday ...

"Mom," I said, when she finally ran out of gas, "who is the secretary of state of the United States?"

She couldn't name her.

I guess this all sounds kind of mean, but we all did truly get a big laugh out of it, even though the point was delivered.

Anyway, the point is, sometimes I truly wonder how I, a pretty serious person who cares about serious things, came out of that person. Sometimes, I actually feel sorry for my mother. It's like, "There's a huge, important, fascinating world out there, and you're obsessed with who is dating who from the 'Dancing with the Stars' cast!"

Another example: When I asked her to pick me up Michael Rosenberg's "War as They Knew It" for Christmas, she said, "Why would you want to read a book about war???"

I said, "Mom, it's not about war. It's about football. But sometimes I like to read books about war, too."

Anyone else find themselves getting to know their parents in a way they don't really like as they grow older and more aware?

 

See 'Death, Crossed Giblets of.'

 

I can live with my parents opposing gay marriage and thinking that the liberal media is out to get them. I can live with them thinking America is on a 233-year-streak of consecutive moral declines. I can live with them disapproving of swear words.

But do they have to think commercials with talking babies in them are hilarious?

 

If you're going to give them a role in government, it should always have "secretary" in the title. If there was a Nurse General, they could be that too.

 

Waylon,

I think all Moms are into that trashy-gossipy-Bradgelina thing.

Although I must say my Mom did get me Rosenberg's book for Christmas, I was quite impressed. So much better than a cheese log or an ugly tie.

 

Yes, the older my parents have become... the more involved they have become with the Southern Baptist Church. And, even though I was raised in that church, I couldn't be more different from some of their beliefs today.

We rarely discuss religion, politics or any of those other things you just don't discuss.

 

Even my grandmother is! She's in her late 80s.

I just have to laugh at people who are that hardcore into it, unapologetically. I don't even think my mother realizes that it's something that people are made fun of for. I think about the Kelly character on "The Office" who is obsessed with celebrity gossip and completely un-self-aware of how ridiculous she sounds. That's my mom.

I couldn't imagine being that into it without realizing that it's trashy, but she doesn't. To her, those are the current events that matter. Not elections. Not Darfur. Not global warming. Not taxes. Celebrity hook-ups and break-ups.

It's bizarre. I'd love to see some sort of Psychology Today article on the phenomenon.

 

IJAG's your mom?[/hangingcurve]

 

I disagree with my parents a lot on many, many issues; Obama, abortion, religion and politics in general . ..
But (sigh) the older I get the smarter my old man looks.
And FWIW:
While I hated my dad growing up. I see a LOT of him - for better and worse - in me.

 

That's like my dad and I. We feuded for years. Still do sometimes. And its a pain in the ass, because now I'm starting to realize he was right about 90 percent of the time.