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Back in the old days

My future family is going to be very different from the family I grew up with. Part of it’s a culture thing, part of it a generational thing, and part of it is just down to personality.

There are SO many things that annoyed me about my family growing up. Everybody thinks their parents are weird. But mine weren’t just weird weird, they were annoying weird.

I’m talking:

  • My dad’s anal obsession with locking every. single. car door before driving off. If you didn’t lock your door, he’d reach over and do it for you. There’s nothing else that makes you feel quite as much like a two-year-old.
  • Neither of my parents EVER picked up the phone (apart from my dad’s business line – that, everyone rushed to get.) The premise was that my mum hated telemarketers and wanted to screen all calls; hence, the machine would pick up after just two rings, which also made it impossible to pick up anyway unless you happened to be right next to it.
  • No presents. I don’t know why, we just didn’t do gifts. I’m assuming neither of them really got presents growing up, and carried on the tradition.
  • No holidays. No trips to the beach, or the snow, etc. Although they just took a trip over to Australia with my little brother – maybe times are a changing?
  • And finally, it used to embarrass me that my parents gave me money to buy ten-trip bus tickets for the journey to school. You know, cause all the cool kids paid full fares, every day, in cash. And even worse to the 11-year-old me, they’d give me $21 to pay for a $11 pass. SO embarrassing, when a 20-ride pass was $22 and people would ask me why they didn’t just give me the extra dollar (God only knows). But why $21, exactly? Because it saved the driver having to count out $9 in change – he or she could just whip out a $10 bill and have it over and done with. Which in hindsight is quite considerate, actually.

I’m under no illusion that my kids are going to think they have the coolest parents in the world – we’re going to embarrass them no matter how hard we try.  But one thing’s for sure – we’re going to have presents every birthday and Christmas, and we’re going to make holidays a priority. I want my children to get to experience lots of different things, not just listen enviously to their friends recounting their great vacations back on the first day of school.

So, what’s your family going to be like? What quirky things did your own family do when you were younger?

2 thoughts on “Back in the old days

  • Reply Revanche February 13, 2010 at 18:57

    Hahhaha wow that’s how my family is NOW, sort of. They stopped birthdays and Christmas at around …. ten? So we had a taste and then we got cut off. Nothing was really a holiday, they never took a day off and I didn’t know that real people went on vacation. That was weird.

    They never pick up the phone now, either. *shaking head* Ah families. I’m totally moving out ASAP… 😛

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