What were your parents like?

[Sweet Pea]

What were your parents like when you were a kid?

Mom sang in Sweet Adelines. She cooked all the meals, ironed EVERYTHING, and loved to sit in a lawn chair with a cold beer in her hand. Dad was always the studious type, but he loved to putter around the house. He'd pour concrete for a sidewalk to the backyard, build a fountain, plant a garden.

They made a really cute couple.

[efue]

Re: What were your parents like?

Mine are just like George Casttanza's parents but, just funnier

[tastebud]

Re: What were your parents like?

My Mom (rest her soul) was a pretty little Finnish woman and the model homemaker. She cooked, sewed, knitted, canned, painted rooms, kept a clean house, washed clothes with a ringer washer (her choice), never had a drivers license or a job and had a contagious laugh. In many ways I have become her. My Dad came from an old Polish family. He was hard working, an organic gardener (unheard of 40 years ago!) could build anything and fix any car. I am the youngest of 3 daughters and became the "son" he never had, going fishing and hunting for night crawlers.

[TxRogue]

Re: What were your parents like?

if i went into my parents life youd all wonder why im not in prison, lol

[Stella]

Re: What were your parents like?

i was an orphan with parents.

not pretty stories for the internet.

[nuisance]

Re: What were your parents like?

I had a great childhood. There were bad times, times I'm not going into here! Things I haven't even told DH, but 98% of it was great. We lived in S. Calif. had horses, and when I was old enough I was on the horse in the mountains until after dark! It's a wonder I never got hurt/introuble. I was/am a daddy's girl, biggest tomboy you ever met. My mom try to make me a "girl" but I fought her with all my might!!! Never was close to mom until after I "grew up" we get along fine now. We were at a trade show at the rodeo afew wks ago, mom was asking me what I wanted, I said nothing, I'm fine, she said you know you can ask your dad and he'll buy you whatever you want! lol I said I know, I don't ask you, your too tight, but all I have to do is look at daddy and say please!!! and there it is, I have it!

DH thinks my parents spoiled me. They did, I was "the baby" came 4 yrs after my sister, they didn't think they couldn have anymore kids. I got away with murder!! Still do!

We camped/traveled oftern. Did competitive trail riding. I miss that the most.
I tried to give my kids as great a childhood as I had..

[MudderBear]

Re: What were your parents like?

My Daddy God rest his soul died too young,,,he was 44, I was 8. He took us camping, cottaging, ran behind us learning to ride a bike, made cool modern picture thingys out of wire to hang on our livingroom walls, built us a 'kids' rec room in the basement, took us sledding down awesome hills in the winter, brought hot chocolate in thermos'. Loved us all so much, loved my Mommy so much and died too young. My Mom carried on from there, took us camping, cottaging, cooked all homemade meals, ironed everything too! kept us all happy, comfortable, and kept us a happy loving family. My parents were the best!

[krubinic]

Re: What were your parents like?

Mom was a wonderful mother and wife. She had such a great sense of humor, very intelligent, was soft spoken, very pretty (looked just like a young Elizabeth Taylor) and everyone liked her a lot. However, she died in 1970 at the age of 36 (I was 12) from an acute form of Leukemia. I still think of her every day of my life in some small way or another.

Dad was always a hard worker so mom could be a SAHM. He was a strict disciplinarian and old fashioned in his thinking about women. He was toughest on me being the daughter and oldest. However, now that I'm an adult, I realize it must've been hard on him losing his wife when he was just 40 with two kids to raise alone. I can also see that to some extent it made him bitter towards life. I always wish he could learn to be happy with the many blessings bestowed upon him in the many years since my mom died, but at age 78, I doubt he's going to change.

[MaryJo]

Re: What were your parents like?

While there was plenty of negative, I choose to dwell on the more pleasant side. My parents live a very "green" lifestyle. My dad is a hard working, honorable man. He, too, loves to putter and I inherited this from him. He can grow anything, plant or animal, and has much knowledge that is now considered a "lost art." My mom didn't work out of the home for the most part. She baked bread, canned garden produce and meats, sewed and knitted better than anyone I know, and liked to work on crafts. She passed down her kitchen knowledge and taught me to love the written word.

[janabanana]

Re: What were your parents like?

My Dad worked for the phone company, and my strict Polish mother was a housewife. My dad met her in Germany during the war in 47. Brought her and her parents and brothers to the US in 49. My mother was never my best friend.. She was my mother... And very strict. I vowed when I had a daughter, which I did, that I'd be her best friend.. Well it bit me in the a$$ big time.. To this day,thanks to my STRICT mother, I turned out pretty darn good... Does this make sense?

[beatlebette]

Re: What were your parents like?

My parents are both gone now. The thing I remember most about them was that they were in love, always. They spend 55 happy years together.

My Dad loved his family, worked hard in advertising for a department store to support us. We went on family vacations for 2 weeks every summer. He always got us a live Christmas tree. I remember it was his job to put on the lights, then the rest of it was up to Mom and the kids. He was very talented musically, and played the piano completely by ear. He had a Baby Grand that he played religiously every night after work. I remember my Mom singing along while she cooked dinner and he played their favorite tunes from the 40's. He was a special man.

My Mom was a great wife and helpmate to my Dad. At times she was working several jobs at a time to help support the family. She sold Avon, Tupperware, Amway and Sarah Coventry jewelry. Even with all of the part time jobs, she managed to be home when we arrived home from school most of the time. She was also a member of The Mother of Twins Club, and President of it for awhile. She was blessed with 2 identical sets of twins 17 years apart from each other. I was in the middle. She cooked dinner for the family every night and packed lunches for kids and my Dad every morning. She also did a lot of canning, and sewing. She even made shirts for my Dad. She made my wedding dress for me in 1969. I still have it in a sealed bag.

Mom got breast cancer in 1982. She had a mastectomy and lived another 7 years when she died of bone cancer in 1989. My Dad took care of her at home, never complaining. He loved her so much. He was lonely after she died, and remarried several years later to a lady who was a friend of theirs. He died in 1998 at the age of 89.

I was blessed with a wonderful childhood, though we were never rich money wise. We were rich in love. This is my favorite picture of my Mom and Dad. This was when they were engaged to be married in 1934.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/beatlebette/family%20pics/MomandDad1934.jpg

Sorry for rambling on so much! I loved my parents a lot.

[luvs2eat]

Re: What were your parents like?

Bette... that's such a sweet photo!!

My dad grew up an only child who was shipped off to relatives in Scotland at 8 years old and he didn't return to the U.S. until he was nearly 20... so he was not really understanding of performing at any level but your absolute best and had tough expectations of us kids. We had perfect table manners and used them at the every night dinner table. He gave us all a love of many different kinds of music. He was also an alchoholic.

Mommy was the older of two girls and obviously NOT the fave of her mother (the same grandmother I wrote about in another thread who obviously preferred the other grandchildren) and spent her life trying to please. She was beautiful and smart and funny and loving... she was the buffer/advocate betw. our stern father and us kids. I remember her sitting w/ me when I was an awkward 13 year old and telling me I was unique and special and beautiful. I only got to keep her till I was 30, but she managed to give me really good parenting advice. I WISH I'd had the patience as a kid to take her knitting lessons seriously. She was an avid golfer.

I miss them both every day.

[nommie]

Re: What were your parents like?

if i went into my parents life youd all wonder why im not in prison, lol

Same here! Not prettty stories!

[tami]

Re: What were your parents like?

I never knew my father and my mom and StD showed me how not to be. It was a rocky childhood filled with more bad than good but I learned from them how to make my life better and be independent. We get along alright now but not close. She has finally said that I am the more sensisable and responsible one of her children.

[Ginger]

Re: What were your parents like?

My Dad was a farmer in Saskatchewan. He was 13 years older than my Mom, a quiet man, very responsible, never seeking attention but doing his best to fulfill his duties. He was Deacon at church, Reeve of the municipality, on the Co-Op and School boards. He did not campaign or run for any of these positions, but was voted in by the specific councils. He was an easy man to love but I often wished that he would have stepped in and put his foot down more often, when Mom would get into one of her 'My way or the highway' moods. When he did step in, Mom backed right down altho she made sure we all knew how 'hurt' she was. He had a quiet sense of humour but you could sometimes see that wicked little twinkle in his eye. He loved his kids and his grandkids. I am just sorry that my own children never knew him. My Dad died of a massive heart attack at the age of 63. I was 17.

My Mom came from a very poor family. I have to say that she did marry a man just like her own Dad. Looking back now, I am sure that she felt she had married well above of her station and was going to make damned sure that we all lived up to the standards she felt she had to uphold. She was a farmer's wife. She had a huge garden, baked bread every Saturday (a favourite memory is the smell of fresh bread and furniture polish!!), sewed her own and our clothes, and helped outside when necessary. She was widowed at 50 and then moved off the farm. She worked for the next couple of years at a seniors home and then got a job at a fabric store. That seemed to be her special niche. I have never seen her happier than there. She never re-married or even dated. She has pulled out the grieving widow card on so many occassions when she thinks she is not getting enough attention, that it is a family joke. Yes I love her but she is the main reason I made sure I would attend post high school education 3 hours away from home. I needed to breathe and live my own life instead of conforming to her very rigid ideas of what was right.

My Mom is 88. She has had a slight stroke but has recovered well. She still lives in her own apartment (waiting to get an apartment in a seniors complex). I try to phone often and know from experience that if I have something important to tell her, I had better get it out before saying 'how are you' or be prepared to wait for half an hour.