My old man had it all going on: Glasgow street thug, degenerate gambler, raging boozer, prescription drug addict, two lighter a day smoker...he died 25 years ago last month and we're all in a better place because of it
About Your Parents Thread
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QYFW
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Was visiting one time and had scribbled a few verses in a notebook and left it on the living room table overnight. Next day I sit down and see my mom had added a verse. Thought that was pretty cool.
Moderator1
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Turned 61 yesterday, the 24th birthday without my mom calling at 7 a.m. to screech Happy Birthday to me and then tell me she forgot to buy me something and is putting a check in the mail. I miss the **** out of those calls (but both kids sent a text by 9 so there's that).
QYFW, was her verse better?
QYFW, was her verse better?
QYFW
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It was on par.
Batman
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Until you realized it began, "There once was a man from Nantucket ..."
Jake_Taylor
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Get to Twitter, obviously.
QYFW
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Baron Scicluna
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Pick up the trash, and deposit it right at the kids' front door.
outofplace
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That is an option. So is returning another time and calmly explaining what happened and express your appreciation because you know the parents will correct such behavior in the future. Then wish them a lovely day.
There is no better principle my parents taught me than respect your elders; it deeply saddens me that youngsters don't respect the elders in the community. Attacking/ripping off old people? Seriously?
I had/have the opposite of helicopter parents; it was basic, are you happy? do you need (not want) anything? no complaints? Great life's good. Be grateful for what little (or more than little) we/you have. Don't wish for things you don't/cant't have. Glass is half full. I'm so lucky that they instilled that it me. (not the easiest path, parents were both divorced in late 60's; one a high school grad, one 11th grade education; multi-racial couple; now married 45 years.)
I had/have the opposite of helicopter parents; it was basic, are you happy? do you need (not want) anything? no complaints? Great life's good. Be grateful for what little (or more than little) we/you have. Don't wish for things you don't/cant't have. Glass is half full. I'm so lucky that they instilled that it me. (not the easiest path, parents were both divorced in late 60's; one a high school grad, one 11th grade education; multi-racial couple; now married 45 years.)
CD Boogie
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I was on the train a few weeks ago and this like 20 year old kid was sitting on the floor in the vestibule and when the train doors opened he pitched his empty bag of McDonald’s out the door so that it fell down into the gap between the door and the track. It reminded me of the 1970s when littering like that was normal, and it also made me want to throw this kid right down after his McDonald’s. Instead I said nothing because I’m too old to pick fights with every ****head I encounter. You can’t be everyone’s parent.
canucklehead
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I miss watching the news every night with my dad, which I did after work when I boomeranged back home when I was in my early 20s. He had an opinion on just about everything that was going on in the world and mostly it involved outrage. I can't imagine what he would say watching the **** show the world has become now. It would be so much fun to watch.
My wife basically won't watch the news with me anymore because I have become my father.
Only my youngest daughter will watch TV with me because she's a lot like me and just laughs when I make fun of absolutely everything and everyone. Often she makes fun of people along with me.
My wife basically won't watch the news with me anymore because I have become my father.
Only my youngest daughter will watch TV with me because she's a lot like me and just laughs when I make fun of absolutely everything and everyone. Often she makes fun of people along with me.
SnarkShark
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SnarkShark
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I can’t stand Pearlman, but I’m glad @Songbird revived this thread. I missed it the first time around and it is fantastic.
I wish my parents were happier. My mom has been an unhappy person my entire life. I didn’t help, of course, being the asshole teenager I was, but her upbringing of abuse ruined her for the rest of her life. If she got help she could get better, but she’ll never admit she has a problem.
My father, who has been tasked with dealing with an eternally unhappy person, struggled with anxiety when I was young, got help, and got better. But a shift in his career in his sixties has soured a lot of that, and the anxiety is creeping in again. Luckily he has the tools to deal with it after years of therapy, but I worry about him every day.
They both had really ****ty upbringings and I respect the hell out of them for dealing with that as well as they have, all things considered.
They love me, though, and I need to make more of an effort to see them, because it makes them happier, I think. Most importantly they love my little boy more than anything in this world and nothing brightens them up like he does. He’s very lucky to have that love, and I hope he appreciates it when he gets older.
I wish my parents were happier. My mom has been an unhappy person my entire life. I didn’t help, of course, being the asshole teenager I was, but her upbringing of abuse ruined her for the rest of her life. If she got help she could get better, but she’ll never admit she has a problem.
My father, who has been tasked with dealing with an eternally unhappy person, struggled with anxiety when I was young, got help, and got better. But a shift in his career in his sixties has soured a lot of that, and the anxiety is creeping in again. Luckily he has the tools to deal with it after years of therapy, but I worry about him every day.
They both had really ****ty upbringings and I respect the hell out of them for dealing with that as well as they have, all things considered.
They love me, though, and I need to make more of an effort to see them, because it makes them happier, I think. Most importantly they love my little boy more than anything in this world and nothing brightens them up like he does. He’s very lucky to have that love, and I hope he appreciates it when he gets older.
Songbird
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Weird how the **** happens sometimes.
Had an hourlong phone chat today that could lead to big changes for me within days.
This change would mean I live only a few hours drive from my dad instead of 3,000 miles away. And so ...
... he just called and it's the way he began the conversation, different from how he's ever started a conversation with me.
It's as if he knew about the possible changes. But there's no way he could have known.
And it's the way he encouraged me to make the move if it feels right. But he was really asking me to make the move without asking me.
But it's the fact he called an hour after my hourlong chat, and the way he began the conversation, and how those 2 things are connected.
Maybe it's God. Or G-d.
Had an hourlong phone chat today that could lead to big changes for me within days.
This change would mean I live only a few hours drive from my dad instead of 3,000 miles away. And so ...
... he just called and it's the way he began the conversation, different from how he's ever started a conversation with me.
It's as if he knew about the possible changes. But there's no way he could have known.
And it's the way he encouraged me to make the move if it feels right. But he was really asking me to make the move without asking me.
But it's the fact he called an hour after my hourlong chat, and the way he began the conversation, and how those 2 things are connected.
Maybe it's God. Or G-d.
maumann
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My mother unintentionally brought me to tears a few weeks ago when I received a black-and-white photo of me on my tricycle in front of our Indian Harbour Beach house with my grandparents beside me, 59 years to the day that photo was taken. I have my grandmother's eye color -- and see her in me every time I look in the mirror. My grandfather is the cause/blame of my lifelong passion for the Tigers. They have been gone since 1976 and 1977, and yet I can hear their distinctly Canadian voices in my mind.
I miss all four of my grandparents, and am certain will have stronger feelings when my parents pass. My belief is that I will be reunited "on the other side," because why create sentience and intelligence if your soul no longer exists upon the death of your physical body?
My mother is a human See 'N Say: the "pull-the-string and listen again to one of 18 different stories" that even Gwen has memorized by now. (Hey, it's story No. 14!).
We've resisted the urge to make bingo cards with each keyword or story arc, but even during last night's family Zoom chat, she broke into the "Dad and I had no idea there were so many UC and Cal State schools. I only knew of Michigan and Michigan State when I went to college ..." and "according to Weight Watchers, I read ...."
But I love her very much and at 86, she won't be there forever. Same with Dad, who turned 86 in January, who worked at Pontiac, RCA, Mission Control, Aerospace and IBM, and never understood my decision to go into journalism/broadcasting and only near the end, finally came to grips with the fact that I liked math as a hobby instead of a career. Should I have been an engineer or a statistical analyst? I would have probably been very good at it, but bored and disinterested. Even commuting to Turner and working 9-to-5 from a cubicle wasn't my cup of tea.
I'm also the only child who doesn't have grandchildren for them to spoil. Still, I think we have a really good relationship and I know they love it when we visit. They aren't fond of our rabbits, but from what I can tell, the rabbits don't seem to care either way.
I was the first grandson on either side of the family. I was also identified as gifted extremely early, which confused (and still confuses) my parents, who really never comprehended how difficult that would make school for me.
I could write numbers in order by 18 months and read by 3. I started first grade a year early -- and was one of two boys in Palm Beach County to score 99 percentile in Math, Science and English on the fifth grade standardized test that year -- so I was always the "smart kid" but also the "new kid" because we moved so often.
For better or worse, they took 12 of us from the entire county (David Robinson, myself and 10 girls) and put us in a special extremely gifted sixth-grade class just to see if they could figure out what we all had in common. You're pigeon-holed as this "potential prodigy" but I just wanted to be included in a normal social group, rather than pushed and prodded to be Sheldon Cooper.
I decided early on that if I couldn't play baseball or drive a race car, I wanted to do something connected to it. If I was born in 2000 instead of 1958, I could have been an analytics guru or a race engineer/strategist. They weren't offering that in 1980, so talking or writing about it seemed just as interesting -- and for a shy kid, very much a challenge to overcome. Working at a radio station or a newspaper definitely isn't as glamorous as working for Apple or Intel, but I certainly enjoyed my choices.
I miss all four of my grandparents, and am certain will have stronger feelings when my parents pass. My belief is that I will be reunited "on the other side," because why create sentience and intelligence if your soul no longer exists upon the death of your physical body?
My mother is a human See 'N Say: the "pull-the-string and listen again to one of 18 different stories" that even Gwen has memorized by now. (Hey, it's story No. 14!).
We've resisted the urge to make bingo cards with each keyword or story arc, but even during last night's family Zoom chat, she broke into the "Dad and I had no idea there were so many UC and Cal State schools. I only knew of Michigan and Michigan State when I went to college ..." and "according to Weight Watchers, I read ...."
But I love her very much and at 86, she won't be there forever. Same with Dad, who turned 86 in January, who worked at Pontiac, RCA, Mission Control, Aerospace and IBM, and never understood my decision to go into journalism/broadcasting and only near the end, finally came to grips with the fact that I liked math as a hobby instead of a career. Should I have been an engineer or a statistical analyst? I would have probably been very good at it, but bored and disinterested. Even commuting to Turner and working 9-to-5 from a cubicle wasn't my cup of tea.
I'm also the only child who doesn't have grandchildren for them to spoil. Still, I think we have a really good relationship and I know they love it when we visit. They aren't fond of our rabbits, but from what I can tell, the rabbits don't seem to care either way.
I was the first grandson on either side of the family. I was also identified as gifted extremely early, which confused (and still confuses) my parents, who really never comprehended how difficult that would make school for me.
I could write numbers in order by 18 months and read by 3. I started first grade a year early -- and was one of two boys in Palm Beach County to score 99 percentile in Math, Science and English on the fifth grade standardized test that year -- so I was always the "smart kid" but also the "new kid" because we moved so often.
For better or worse, they took 12 of us from the entire county (David Robinson, myself and 10 girls) and put us in a special extremely gifted sixth-grade class just to see if they could figure out what we all had in common. You're pigeon-holed as this "potential prodigy" but I just wanted to be included in a normal social group, rather than pushed and prodded to be Sheldon Cooper.
I decided early on that if I couldn't play baseball or drive a race car, I wanted to do something connected to it. If I was born in 2000 instead of 1958, I could have been an analytics guru or a race engineer/strategist. They weren't offering that in 1980, so talking or writing about it seemed just as interesting -- and for a shy kid, very much a challenge to overcome. Working at a radio station or a newspaper definitely isn't as glamorous as working for Apple or Intel, but I certainly enjoyed my choices.
micropolitan guy
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All I'll say is, if you have a chance to talk to your parents (and if you still want to, I totally realize there are cases where the estrangement/pain/hassle, etc. are just too much to overcome), please do. You will miss them dearly when they are gone, no matter what age they pass away at.
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