It what ways are you like your parents? I have my dad's solitaryness and empathy. I also

[applegrove]

Last edited Mon Feb 13, 2012, 04:21 AM - Edit history (1)

got his love of politics and perceptiveness. From my mom I got the ability to focus. The downside is that I got my mom's inability to process lots of information from various arenas. Like her I concentrate on one area of expertese and let all others slide (being in a relationship would tax me too much intellectually - I would have nothing left for my interests). At least I know it and am aware of my limitations in this regard. I mean I always knew I didn't want to be in a relationship. And it makes a lot of sense. Why I was so focussed on work when I was young. And now that I have a passion, I'm no longer focussed on work. I use to live to work. Now I work to live.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. I'm pretty much my own person but

I like to put chotskies in my car like an Navaho Eagle feather hanging from the rear view and a little Buddah and a lizard on the dash. When I was about 50 my wife pointed out that my father did the same kind of thing in his cars.

From my step mother, I learned to love to cook. She was old school. Her mother came across on the wagon trains so canning, preserving and making the best use of whatever was in season were just what you did. She was amazing! When I was about 12, we lived on an apple orchard in Sebastopol and we kids would gather berries, plumbs, apples, whatever was growing and she would turn whatever we brought home, including squirrils into incredible edibles.

She is still alive. I really must write her a letter telling her what an affect she had on my life cause we never really got along when I lived with them. Just the normal resentment of the stepkid I guess.

[Phentex]

9. That's cool

on both counts!

Sometimes I wonder what my kids will discover about themselves years from now.

[6000eliot]

2. I'm the perfect combination of my father's debilitating shyness and my mother's crippling insecurity

Thanks, Mom and Dad!

[Chan790]

3. I'm not.

If I wasn't the spitting image of my biological father at my age, you'd never know we're related. For that reason, I have a compelling urge to get into more fistfights in order to break my nose and look less like him. He's a vicious alcoholic drug-addict violent racist religious gun-nut felon...there are about 500 more adjectives I'm truncating. (If he has a good trait, I never saw it.) We haven't spoken since I was 13. Well, he speaks and I calmly inform him through proxies that his insistence on trying to have a relationship is interfering with my ability to consider him dead. He's mathy. I'm a writer. He's never read any book but the Bible. I'm godless.

My mother is a severely-introverted caustic sad-drunk with a sadistic streak for psychological abuse. I have slightly more in common with my mother than my father, we share this view of revenge...I'm not even mad, you're just going to suffer to an outsized degree in relation to what you've done. Never wanted kids and told us growing-up she regrets having us. I can't be mad at her but we're not alike. If I didn't look like my father, I'd think she adopted us...she's completely devoid of any type of maternal bond and much closer to her nephews than her own kids. She's kind of a townie. She complains when she has to think. I'm urbane, urban and contemplative.

Mostly, I'm like my stepfather. Only decent parent we had. Actually a happy person, patience of a saint, likes kids. My one saving grace is that my mother's taste in men is so narrow physically that I can pass myself off as his usually.

[The Genealogist]

4. From Dad, I learned how to be a big smart-ass, sarcastic, and to cuss

My father, when he fixed the car, could unleash a cat five storm of filthy language. Being a smart ass is, most of the time, going to make others angry and hostile. However, if you can cut angry tension with a well-placed smart ass comment.

From my mother, I learned, unfortunately, to fret and worry and to take things personally. Most of her relatives stew and fret, and luckily I don't usually stew and fret like they do. I tend to internalize, as my mother did. Not very healthy, and it is VERY hard for me to control my taking things personally.

[woodsprite]

5. I like to think that I got my Dad's ability to

be assertive and deal with people. I know I got his "Tough, if you don't like me, it's your problem" attitude from him as well as his patience. I also learned from him that it was OK to question things.

My dad also instilled in me a total love of learning and a love of books. Every year he would pick out a special book for my birthday and another for Christmas. Mainly reference books about every topic under the sun. I received my last one from him the Christmas after he died. He wrote in it as soon as he received it since he didn't know if he would still be here by Christmas.

I guess I also got my ability to worry endlessly about things from Mom. I'm very good at that one. Mom also taught me about the beauty of nature and totally encouraged my creative side (music and art).

I guess I also inherited my Mom and Dad's love of family, keeping everyone close. They both came from broken homes, so what extended family we had was very important to them.

[kaitcat]

6. I got the best and worst of both of them.

Last edited Mon Feb 13, 2012, 09:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Which is why I'm single, no kids, and have one cat. I like my life peaceful and quiet.

My dad was a quiet, invisible drunk and my mother was a raging co-dependent spouse. My dad cheated constantly and my mom pretended not to see it or know about it, except for when she did and then she blew up and beat up cars with shovels, destroyed every glass we had in the house with one sweep of her arm across the kitchen counter, cut every piece of clothing I had into shreds with a pair of pinking sheers, and so on.

I got from my dad a love of reading, I got from my dad my manipulative, sneaky streak, and unfortunately for him I'm better at those games than he ever was. I do it almost without even thinking about it, which is what makes me dangerous.

From my mom a love of politics, her nose, and her hips. I got my strong fingernails and DDs from her mother -- both of those skipped a generation.

Mom and dad have been split up for 11 years now, so she doesn't fly into the rages anymore. In fact, I told her point blank if she ever did that again that there would be consequences she wouldn't like. Now all it really takes to make her happy is for me to listen, to pay attention, and to do something for her without her having to ask. I'm getting better at it, but if you listen to her I still have a long way to go.

[Old Troop]

7. Well, I look just like my dad (although it's the look he had when

he was much older than I am). I seem to gain more of his mannerisms with every passing year and find myself quoting his aphorisms to my kids and grandkids. I gained his love of reading and his ability to laugh at the tribulations that life throws in our way.

[Bladian]

8. Let's see here...

I have my mom's temper. Probably not a good thing, but there it is. I have my dad's kind of odd sense of humor. And his impatience. My mother gets mad at us because we'll try to look for something (say a book) and after 30 seconds to a minute we'll both say, "Yeah it's not here. Musta given it away." And then, go figure, she looks and finds it right away.

[femmocrat]

10. I look like my mother, but I'm my father's daughter.

Which is strange, because we were never close. He was hard to get to know. I guess I am too... I keep to myself a lot and I'm not very out-going. My mom was very sociable and loved get-togethers, traveling, and playing cards and games. Me, not so much -- I'm more of a homebody.

The one thing I did get from my mom is that we both love to read. She always encouraged us to read and get a good education. My dad was a hard-working guy, not a reader, and only had a 10th grade education. He was so smart in other ways, though. I miss them both every day.

[applegrove]

11. My mom insisted I read the newspaper every day when I was 13 or so. I am so thankful for that.

[nolabear]

12. I think I have my mother's artistic temperment

and, unfortunately, my father's metabolism.

[yellowcanine]

13. I have my dad's over sized head. It gets really annoying when I want to get a hat. My MC helmet is

an XXXL. When I went to get it the guy said, "We have one in stock. I hope you like black." Most of the discount on-line sites only have helmets up to XXL. Bummer.