My Parents (& Sister)

"What," asked RT, "is your mother like?"

I grinned. "Daft," I said.

I then made my apologies on her behalf, but really, she did fall for the old "Did you know they've taken the word 'gullible' out of the dictionary?" ;) And don't get me started on the story about "Oh, that must be the electrician's phone number..." :)
Anyway, having been done with being rude about her, I moved on to the rest.

Caring... But I used to feel she was too caring. Perhaps over-protective. Optimistic. Trying to describe how someone is, it's all of a sudden quite difficult to do :)
A basic example I gave was how when I was younger, I had some friends a year younger than me, but they would have watched films that I wasn't allowed to watch, etc.

"And what is your dad like?"

"Ermmm. Errrmmmmm. Hmm. He's... just... sort of like my dad" :) I eventually managed to say.

I mean it's not something I'd thought about before! :) I'm not sure what made it easier for me to pick some words out of the air about my Mum that I couldn't do for my Dad, but clearly there must be something.
I mean my Dad's always been around and everything, it's not like I didn't/don't know him, it's just that I felt at a loss to DESCRIBE him.

In the end, the best I managed to say really was that in recent times, I've noticed I seem to take after my Dad a fair bit in terms of different bits of my personality :) We have a similar sense of humour (i.e. terrible ;), and there are other things he's said that strike me about myself.
For example, he was recently saying about how when he used to work at a factory, he would sometimes wander around the floor and look at other people doing their jobs. And sometimes he would realise someone was getting something wrong, or could help someone, or that two people doing similar things could work better together and that sort of thing :) But he wasn't like 'important' in terms of 'rank' at the factory. Just another person doing another job. :)
And my Mum and sister were laughing at this, because rather than concentrating on his own job, he was 'buggering about' getting in other peoples' way ;)

But I'm like, "I do that!!" :) At my company, I am sometimes known as "The Wandering Man" ;) ... Normally just as I have wandered into or past a room, and someone has then started a sentence with, "Although, while you're there..." :)
This is only a small company, but after my two bosses, I tend to have a better idea of what everyone else is working on than anyone else does. And there are often times I'll wander along to someone (especially if I can hear them swearing ;) and ask what they're working on, and be able to help point them in a new direction (if they want it, that is... I don't just stick my nose in... well... sometimes, perhaps... ;)
My Mum and sister had a good laugh at all of this, as they both thought we were quite clearly completely loopy ;)

ANYWAY :) (I didn't go into that much detail at Relate ;)

I have believed in general that I come from a fairly average and normal background. Recently, disappointingly, I have begun to wonder exactly how "normal" that is these days.

See, I have never had any doubt that my parents don't love each other. I'm not saying everything has always been perfect, they'd have perfectly normal disagreements sometimes, but I don't ever recall having observed any serious problems between them.
I realised in recent years that my birthday is some seven months after they got married (ooh, the shame! The shame! ;), but I don't think for a moment that that was why they got married.

In terms of Relate, RT asked whether I knew how they "dealt" with problems. No idea :)

RT asked whether I would have talked to them growing up, about sex or anything. Not really; it would have been embarressing. Little odd talking to your parents about that sort of thing - I'm sure they wouldn't have MINDED, but, they're like, your parents ;)
In general, if I had anything going on in my life, particularly with regards to those girl thingmies, I would have wanted my mum to be the last to know. Because she'd have taken (gah! ;) an interest. Of course, I'm sure we've all been there ;)
My parents had talked to me about sex though, and the day before I first met my wife with a view to staying overnight with her, my Mum tried to give me some condoms (Oh, the embaressment! ;), which I said I would not need as it really wasn't that sort of thing (and I had already bought some anyway ;)

In terms of growing up in general, RT asked whether they ever smacked me or anything. They did, probably particularly as I was actually a bit older (teens) (that seems slightly odd now in some ways, thinking about it), and I would be particularly frustrating by never doing homework. Of course, being a teenager, whenever my Mum shouted at me, I would just shout back, which obviously did not help matters calm down. My Dad was ok mostly, but it would all really annoy my mum - I guess she knew I was clever, but didn't bother putting the effort in. I am not however conciously aware that I carry any particular issues as a result of this. Was just part of growing up, and I was never seriously hurt at all.

Oh, I think there was a bit on my sister, too. She seemed to get everything easier, although I mostly ascribe this to the fact that me, being two-and-a-half years older, had already fought most of the battles that she then fought herself.

My sister and I could also get very shouty at each other before I left home, and this wasn't usually helped by the fact that usually my Mum and sister would be on the same "side", leaving me in a corner of my own.
Despite this, my sister is the only person I would have considered talking to about any every-day or "life" problems, I think. Even now, of people I know in real life, she's the only one I'm seriously considering talking to about everything, although it would be a little strange what with her being my sister ;)
Today, she at least has the advantage of knowing both Mr & Mrs Monkfish ;) On that side of things, if I spoke to her, at least I'd feel she had a balanced view, but on the other hand I might feel a bit guilty about telling her everything about my wife.
Anyway, I'm not asking for opinions or advice here really, I just mentioned it as it was related ;) It's something I'm still thinking through a little.

When I was still living at home, I definitely always felt I wanted to move out when I could. I love them all, but we did drive each other up the wall ;) I think I've said before we definitely get on much better not having to permanently put up with each other ;)

Right, well, there we go. That's... pretty much everything, I think ;) I think I've at least mentioned the questions RT asked, and how I answered them, as well as having given a whole bunch of additional information as well ;) See, aren't you all lucky :) (or bored. One of those two ;)

The most important part of this post to me (that necessitated this one being written before some others) was that, to the best of my knowledge, my parents love each other, and are happy together. And I think that that has perhaps an enormous effect on how I think a relationship should be (unsurprisingly, I should think).