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What are/were your parents like?

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Barmymoo:
I think I spend too much time with my mum to get a proper focus on what she's like, but my dad is a bit easier to understand now that I don't live with him. He's very smart, and  gets frustrated when people don't understand simple things like how to programme a computer to tapdance or make a website sing in Chinese (I'm joking, but he is a bit like that. If he knows how to do it, he doesn't get why other people don't). He can be very funny but he can also be really bad tempered.

Looking back on it I had a rather odd upbringing, my parents don't drink (well my dad does now but he never used to) or smoke, and we never had a TV. Dad hates TV but he watches it pretty happily when we visit anyone. Sometimes he can be a bit of a hypocrite. I think mum was not exactly under his thumb, but used to deferring to him over things she didn't have an opinion. She's got a fairly narrow outlook on life, she only seems to be interested in her immediate family and her garden and the chickens etc. I don't even bother trying to ask her about politics or anything in another country any more, because she won't know. Also she was unexpectedly homophobic when I came out to her, which surprised me somewhat. (Also made for some interesting and awkward conversations.)

Oddly, my stepdad is almost exactly like my dad except a bit more sociable and less violent. Also he's religious, whereas my dad is very atheist. But sometimes I get them confused in my memory, so I can't remember whether it was my dad or my stepdad who said they didn't like Stephen Fry, for example. So far I've managed to blag it when I make a mistake but I live in fear of the day when someone notices that I find it hard to distinguish them.

Hmm. That was a bit tl;dr. Short version: My parents are weird in a fairly normal way. They'd like you to think they're free spirited but they're not really.

The Cheesinator:
My parents are both immigrants. They decided they'd had enough of the pricks who were running Czechoslovakia, engaged in some severely 007 shit to cross the border into Germany, spent a while taking in Western Europe, etc. They picked Canada over the US, and settled in Toronto. Life was pretty shitty at first, since not knowing English tends to limit job options. They both have Master's in Fine Arts, and they're both freelancers, working at home. Their job involves painting real estate renderings for the various suburbs popping up around Toronto and in the towns nearby. They hate the people they get their work from. They want to move back to the Czech Republic when I'm finished with university, since they're sick of not knowing anyone (their own fault, to an extent). I have some sort of really intense obligation to be honest to them, so I always tell them when I do potentially objectionable things (Perhaps not a good thing, but this way they trust me a lot). Marriage did not occur til I was in Grade 5, just because they never got around to it.

My old man can be a overly confrontational and his fuse is a bit short, but he's one of the smartest people I've ever met. He pushes me towards bettering myself, and not being a lazy procrastinator. He knows way too much about art and philosophy, but he insists he's forgotten half of what he once knew. He's very bald, and rocks a beard. He buys me beer. His sense of humour is wickedly sharp, and we enjoy a lot of the same TV shows/music.

My mom was brought up Roman Catholic under a strictly atheistic government. She occasionally clings to religion and it's teachings, but since my father and I are pretty much apathetic, it often comes across as cliche. She's a very nice person, but prone to clouding issues and sulking when I become stubborn.

Having seen my friends' families, I consider myself pretty lucky to have such individuals as the driving force in my upbringing.

 

Darkbluerabbit:
Since this thread has been resurrected, I feel like saying that my parents just ran a marathon together.  They came in one second apart.  How fucking cute is that? 

Also, other than basically growing up in a petting zoo, I have had a ridiculously normal childhood.

It is a terrible petting zoo.  The goats will headbutt you in the leg.

RedLion:
Cheesinator, your parents' story is pretty bad ass.

Mine are just ridiculously over-earnest. I was watching a movie with a lady friend of mine this evening while they were out, and when they game home, they were of course kind and polite, but they bombarded her with personal questions--not out of some parental instinct, but because that's just how they are, they do that with everyone they meet. And they truly don't think that it annoys or bothers anyone.

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