How Old Are/Were Your Parents?....
pekemom
8 years ago
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ont_gal
8 years agowildchild2x2
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Were Your Parents Cool or Uptight?
Comments (21)They were definitely not uptight. But I never saw them as cool either, though they could have their moments. I felt safe, loved, and usually understood. I have always liked to be with my parents, even as a teen. My mother's motto might have been "I trust you until you give me a reason not to." So I didn't give her reasons not to trust me. Or it might have been "For every right there is a responsibility." So I was willing to work for what I wanted, whether that meant earning the money or earning the right. I knew the work would pay off. Or it might have been "Don't call me from jail at 3am because I will NOT come get you." I never called her from anywhere at 3am, I was always home in bed! LOL! I know she would have come after me if I wasn't safe. Her point was not to do something stupid and expect her to bail us out. My dad's motto was "Do what your mother says!" LOL. I only remember ticking him off once. That's a story you won't hear from me. (It wasn't THAT bad, just embarrassing now.) Dad had a vague idea of what was going on around the house and schedule, he was just easily distracted and mom was the scheduler/planner/decision maker when it came to us kids. But he lives in the moment, so he was fun. He played games with us, treated us to ice cream before dinner, and was only brought in to the discipline for extreme cases. They gave me more emotionally than materially, and even there I had everything I needed and some of what I wanted. Their rules had a consistent foundation, but were also individual and case by case. The rules were not enforced with force or fear of punishment. There was mutual respect. Yeah, I think they had high expectations. But somehow they instilled in us the trait of setting our own high expectations for our behavior and standards. So by the time I was an older teen I didn't feel like I was abiding by "their rules," I felt like I was living my own standards. They took us to church every Sunday until I was 15- when I told mom I didn't want to go anymore. There was a short argument, and she backed off, saying I needed to make my own choices. There was a rule I wouldn't date until age 16. But when I was a 15 y/o sophomore I was asked to prom by an 18 y/o senior. I didn't think I had a chance, but they let me go, gave me their trust b/c I didn't give them a reason not to. Seven years later they walked me down the aisle to marry that same guy. 15 years and 4 GKs later, I think they are happy with that choice. ;o)...See MoreHow old were you when you started cooking?
Comments (29)The first food I remember making was Roly-Polies when I was about four. It wasn't until about a year or two ago that my cousin discovered this snapshot of me making them. I'd roll out the scraps from my mother's pie crust between two sheets of waxed paper. Then I'd spread it with peanut butter and cinnamon/sugar, roll it up, slice, and put on a cookie sheet for my mom to bake. As an only child, I was my mom's sous chef (tipping beans, whipping cream, decorating cookies, etc.) and I learned a step at a time, always thinking it was fun. All the women in our family used to congregate at my aunt's house in the summer for a week or two of canning and freezing vast amounts of food for the year. I started as a tomato and peach skin peeler. My dad and two uncles had boats so cleaning fish and picking crabs was the beginning of my seafood cooking education. My friends and I used to make little stoves out of potato chip cans and coat hangers and have simple cookouts on them. We'd also wrap potatoes in clay and roast them in a bonfire while we were ice skating and things like that. My cooking skills progressed so that when my father was killed when I was 12 and my mother went to work full-time, I made most of the dinners for us. That's when I started experimenting with different kinds of soups and stews that could be heated up and eaten at any time. When I was 16, I acquired a stepfather who was a wonderful cook (although a little heavy on weird stuff like souse and blood pudding that I'd never seen made before). Around then, one of the grocery stores offered a 12-volume set of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery and WOW, did my culinary adventures shift into high gear! We'd have a dinner of dishes from Denmark, followed by English jam tarts the next week. I was fortunate to have a roommate for my first college apartment who knew how to cook just about anything. While our classmates were eating ramen noodles and hot dogs, we were having tasty meals on the same budget. We also used to prepare venison and other game dinners for hunters at a set price per head, which was our first commercial cooking venture. So that's my youthful culinary history. Cooking has always seemed to be interwoven with other activities in my life but rarely played a major role in it....See MoreHow old were your Teens when they stopped using your pool?
Comments (2)Dave - I didn't see you re-post on the discussion forum so I'll answer it here. Many of my friends have pools and I grew up with a pool. It appears that kids lose interest around junior high/high school age when socializing with their peers is more important to them. I know kids who have friends over often tend to use the pool more--just like I did when I was a teenager. My next door neighbor's kid is 13 and he rarely swims/play in the pool unless he has friends over--and they had the pool done just a year ago! You're definitely getting your monies worth since your kids are still young. We are almost done with our pool and our two boys ages 3 and 7 are so excited. So when your kids get to that age, have their friends over, take away the video games, turn off the air conditioning, I'm sure they'll love the pool. LOL...See MoreSort of a follow up to "How old were your parents?"
Comments (10)Frustrating, yes, but can we revisit the *expense*? My beautician's mother has mild dementia. She is still self sufficient -- able to bathe herself, dress, eat and drink, etc. -- and is on mild medication, BUT...but she requires constant monitoring. She could live another twenty years. Care in a nice place costs $60K a year....See Morelily316
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