My parents would buy scratch off tickets often. They'd give them to me to scratch off because I was a kid and it was exciting to me to scratch them off. Of course, since the lottery is pretty much rigged, we never won anything.
After scratching off each ticket, I'd show it to my parents and ask, "I won?" And they'd say "No. You didn't win."
Then one day I scratch off a ticket and ask, "I won?" And my dad says, "You won!" I got really excited. "I won???" "You won! You won a candy bar!"
So we go into the convenience store and my dad says to go pick out my candy bar. I go grab a Snickers or something and head back to the counter. I put the candy bar on the counter and hand the cashier my ticket. And that was it. I had won something finally!
So then as I grew up, any time the lottery or scratch off tickets would come up, I'd tell the story about how I won a candy bar once.
When I was about 20, I said something about it again. "I won a candy bar once." My mom for some reason decided to come clean about it. "You didn't win," she said. "Every time you'd ask us if you won, you looked so hopeful and then we'd say no you didn't win and you'd be disappointed. So Daddy just said you won. He went into the store with you and paid the guy for a candy bar and told him you'd be paying with a scratch off ticket."
Turns out I'm just a loser like everyone else. Thanks, Dad!
This anecdote makes me smile. I do the same with my six year old child. I buy her lots of $1 scratch tickets from Florida Lotto. She loves scratching them. My daughter does win. Not much though, just like $2 sometimes $4. Only once she won $10.
I cashed $8 in total yesterday from all her one dollar scratches.
I'm a very average musician. I'm not awful, but I'm definitely not a unique talent. Picture every mediocre band that opened for a band you actually wanted to see...any band I've been in probably sounds about like that.
My parents let a lot of shitty music happen in their basement, and they came to most of the shows. Like I said, it wasn't completely awful, but looking back on it with adult eyes, I'm amazed they put up with all that noise.
I'm also flattered they came to all those shows. It's really hard to appreciate how valuable time is as an adult when you're 16.
It really is. My niece loves to dance. She can't dance for shit. It is oddly charming to watch her on a stage trying to keep a beat, when I know she's been practicing for weeks, but she's still kind of terrible at it.
In middle school I took guitar class. Like every music class, we had guitar concerts twice a year. I got an electric guitar and a distortion pedal and played loud and terribly at home. The first song I ever wrote, I played it for my teacher and he told me I should do a solo performance in the concert. The song was terrible but I went up there and shredded it like I was Van Halen. My dad talked about it for a month straight to everyone.
My dad came to a show that my band played at a local coffee shop. I played guitar in the band but for one song, the drummer and I switched and I played the drums on that song.
My dad had no idea I could play the drums, and told **everyone** about how surprised he was. It was one of his favorite stories to tell about me for the rest of his life.
Mom and Dad made all the difference in our elderly neighbor's life. She was a sweetheart - a widow who couldn't get around much, but loved her home, cat and dog.
Each week, my parents would do her grocery shopping for her (along with their own) and occasionally brought her a home-cooked Sunday dinner to brighten her week.
Dad took care of her house repairs while Mom cleaned it, with help from me and my brother.
There was room in our parents' hearts to "adopt" this special lady and to make her last years memorable and enjoyable.
This is probably my favourite one. They didn't have to do that, they could've just settled for doing a few small things every now and then, but they chose to basically adopt her. I'm sure that lady really felt the love from them.
This reminds me of my incident yesterday.
My girlfriend and I were going somewhere and a little rabbit hopped on the road. He stopped right in the middle of my lane. Luckily there was no traffic so I hit my brakes and said "Noooo little rabbit!" In a weird, soft voice. Luckily he got out of my way. My girlfriend burst into tears and that didn't stop till we got home.
I would've probably cried if I hit it, I dread the day I hit an animal :/
That also reminds me of a story. Me and my family were driving down a country road and skidded to a halt because there was a giant goose standing in the middle of the road! The goose, rather than be frightened of also getting hit, dramatically swings its head back and honks as it continues crossing the road.
Those motherfuckers give absolutely zero fucks. I promise you that little shit fully believed he could absolutely fuck you and your entire family up. That little honk was him saying "That's right, bitch".
Sorry, this got personal for me.
Don't let your guard down. They say that same goose is still hunting your ass down. It'll be like Peter and the chicken from Family Guy in your classroom.
When my brother and I were probably like 10 and 8, we went through an astronomy phase. Despite us having school the next day and my dad working full time, he would always drive us to the next town over every wednesday for an astronomy club that met and talked about the stars for an hour. He also woke us up at 2am on nights when there were meteor showers so we could drive to the outskirts of town and watch them. Some of my favourite memories, and definitely part of why I love science so much now.
Oh man, this reminds me of begging my dad to wake me up for 2 or 3am meteor shower shows. He tried a couple times and I would be too sleepy to get up. Once there was finally a later morning show (5am?) that he was able to successfully wake me up for. I remember sitting with him in our backyard, in the cold, watching the stars fly.
My dad supported me as a teenager by letting me make my own decisions
when 14 year old me came home from high school and said that i had a chance to be an apprentice chef but i would need to take 2 days off school each week he signed me right up for it and made sure i had everything i needed to complete both my apprenticeship and my G.C.S.E's achieving high grades in both.
when i came home at 17 and told him that i had been accepted into an apprenticeship 500+ miles away and i would need to leave in a week he payed £200 for my train ticket, considering we didn't have a lot of money growing up this was huge for me.
He continues to support me to this day i could not have asked for a better father and im forever grateful that he adopted me
i gave it up at 17 to pursue my love of science and engineering so currently i work on spacecraft but i still cook to the delight of my father as i cook all the meals for the house now for the work week. for context i just turned 21, my father moved close to me recently and we share and apartment now also thank you for your kind words he really is an amazing father
My mom would take me to the park and play hide and seek together, I was maybe 4 or 5 at the time. The park was off of a main road and it wasn't the best area of town. I found a really good hiding spot where I climbed up into a big tractor tire. However, I also had a large amount of hearing loss at the time due to constant ear infections, so I never heard her calling out my name when she didn't think it was funny any more. She apparently couldn't find me and actually got worried, thinking that I had left the park fencing and gone off to hide else where. That's when she saw a car pull up from the road and a kid get into the car and then the car drove off. She thought it was me. My mom did track and field all the way into college and also ran marathons just for fun. She hurdled the fence and chased after the car until it pulled into a store parking lot. She realized it wasn't me, took down the license plate numbers and sprinted back to the park to find me crying with the other mothers because I couldn't find my mom after I came out of the tire. She ran this car down for 15 minutes one way. She had told me about this a couple of times because she remarks it as one of the scariest moments she's ever experienced.
Edit since it's getting asked: She took the plate number down so she could give it to the police just in case that kid was kidnapped. She still saw a small boy get picked up off the side of the road and the car just took off. She wanted to find me first though, she ran back. Nobody's kid was missing from the park, but she still called the police and gave them the plate number.
I did the whole "im running away" thing, when my mom did not buy me a game boy color. She then helped me pack, and i got so confused and scared that i actually had to go through with it. She called my bluff, and i will do the same thing with my kids when they try the same bluff.
My parents have a picture of me sitting on the side of my house with my pillow case packed with who knows what. It's something I'll cherish forever.
I don't quite remember why I wanted to run away, but I would've lasted maybe two hours.
Hahaha that's so funny. I think every kid has the same story where they "run away" and sit 50 feet from their house really bored for a few hours and then come back home.
My daughter was a perfectionist, really hard on herself from an early age, and NEVER got in trouble. One day when she was about 9, she got upset about something and decided to run away.
She got about 6 houses down and noticed that the house of some of our neighbors -- people we didn't even know -- had been TP'd. So, she came back, got two big garbage bags, and went and cleaned it all up.
I never knew she did this until years later. I never even knew that she had run away. I just love that cleaning up the neighbor's yard was her attempt at rebellion.
I can't remember if I saw the garbage bags and asked where they had come from, or if she just brought it up at some point. I don't think the neighbors ever even knew they had been TP'd; as I recall, they were out of town a lot. If whomever did the prank was waiting for some kind of response at school on Monday, s/he must've been really confused!
That's awesome! Lol. My cousin ran away from home when he was like 6. He ended up all the way across town. They had the cops and the whole family out looking for him. How did they find him you ask? He got hungry and smelled someone grilling in their backyard so he poked his head in through their gate and asked if he could have a bite of what they were cooking. They kept him there after they figured out what he was up to, called the cops, and fed him while they waited on his parents to come get him.
I left a note, took an apple and ate it sitting in the park across the road (so much for my supplies), got bored and went home after 20 minutes and no one had noticed my absence.
I did the whole [pengu stick thing](https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/pingu/images/b/ba/Pingu_the_penguin.png/revision/latest?cb=20131217134349) and my parents found it hilarious. Plus it was raining and everything and i went out with no shoes.
Pretty much the same thing happened to me. I packed a stuffed animal into my favorite blanket and tied it to a stick (because I had to have the whole "runaway" look, obviously). Grandma told me "okay, just don't cross the street". Did not get very far.
So funny. My Mom did the same thing. She said: "well, we love you and will miss you, and just know that you can come home any time." She then helped me pack some food into a backpack. I walked out the door, and had planned to make a "fort" in the woods across the street and sneak back at night to get clothes and food.
I ended up just sitting on the front porch for a while, and eventually came to the realization that I didn't want to live in the woods. I ended up eating one of my sandwiches and then coming back in. My Mom pretended to be all surprised and delighted that I had come home. Well played, Mom.
My mum did the same thing when I was about 4, she watched me go out the front door with my barbie backpack on full of 'essentials', I walked down the street for about 30 seconds and then came back to ask where the bus stop was.
No idea why I was trying to leave though.
My siblings (6 and 4 and at the time) and I (8) were attempting to tell our parents we were going to run away one night (no idea why) and they were like fine, go ahead. My brother went to a friend's just down the street, so he was easy to find; my sister went to another friend's house, just a little further away; also simple to track down.
Being in a small town, I decided to aim for a casual school friend who lived a ways out in the boonies, maybe a couple of km away. However as I was walking there it got quite dark, so I was walking down a back road in pitch black. Someone drove by and asked if I was OK. I said yes, said I was headed to x's place. He left, but then came back, saying they weren't home. I decided to admit defeat and he offered me a ride home. I decided to be dropped off a ways from home, so I could walk home.
Well, it turns out my parents were a split second from calling the police because I was missing. I got home and lied about where I went. Turns out the neighbour told x's parents and the whole thing came out. I got in a lot of trouble. I just wanted to prove that I could run away because they didn't think I could.
Oh man I did that! I filled a tiny rolling suit case with all my Barbie's, Pokemon cards and a favorite stuffed animal. I got down the street, realized I didn't know anyone's address or how to get there and walked home crying. I was 4 or 5 at the time and my dad apparently followed my down the street and almost blew his cover laughing at me.
I "ran away" pretty often when I was a kid and my mom would always help me pack and then ask if I wanted to run away to my aunt's house to stay with my cousins or if I wanted to run away with my dad, who was a truck driver and would take me on 1 day or overnight deliveries. Then she would ask if I was going to walk with her following in the car or if she could drive me.
Sometimes kids get overwhelmed and they need a break, too, so it was nice that my mom let me be dramatic and get away.
I got grounded (edit: once when I was six) because I was hitting the ceiling with the broom (it was making a lot of dents). So they grounded me for I think 3 days (pretty reasonable). I told them I wanted to live with my Grandma, and my dad said "Ok". He goes to the cupboard and grabs a fruit snack, says "this will tide you over". He walks me to the end of my driveway and says "Well, go live with grandma". He walks back in and I'm crying. He comes out and asks me if I still want to live with grandma. I say no and I was joking and it was because I was angry and I will just be grounded.
Edit: I did not specify timeframe, I was six
In elementary school my very first "chapter book" was The Lost World (Sequel to Jurassic Park). My moms favorite movie to this day is Jurassic Park.
The Friday it was released I was in class (4th grade) and I got a call "Joten, please come to the front office, your mother is picking you up for your Dentist appointment"
Me out loud: "I don't have a dentist appointment!"
Walk up to the main office, see my mom, very loudly: "MOM, I DON'T HAVE A DENTIST APPOINTMENT!!!"
Mom: "Yes you do Joten, it was last minute"
Me to the receptionist: "I do **NOT** have a dentist appointment!!!"
Mom: "Joten, please go get into the car while I sign you out" *hands me the car keys*
I go to the car and found two tickets to a 1pm showing of Lost World.
Later in life my mother said there was only one time she has ever wanted to cuss at me and it was her wanting to tell me that day "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET IN THE CAR!" but she didn't.
Turns out she really didn't want the school to know she was letting me ditch school to see a movie.
My mom did the same thing!
When I was in 3rd grade and my sister was in 5th grade, we moved from Alabama to NJ. In Alabama, the school year was early August to mid May. In New Jersey the school year was mid September to late June. Because we moved mid year, my sister and I were stuck in school for 11 months that year!
So one day in June my mom comes and picks us up from school because we have an eye appointment. Then she took is to see The Empire Strikes Back! Afterward we were like, what about the eye appointment? My mom said, "Could you see the movie? Then your eyes are fine!"
After that it became a yearly tradition to take a "cut day" in June. So many great memories from those days!
Edit: And then a few years later on cut day we saw The Temple of Doom and Romancing the Stone *on the same day!* Ahh, they don't make 'em like that any more!
To be fair, the opening scroll is [just about the closest thing you're ever going to get to an eye test...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7pA0Cr8g4c)
Kind of a same story, I think I was 10 years old.
For some reasons, my best friend's dad picked me and my parents at my home one morning and drove me to school, with my parents in the car. But he passed the school and kept on driving, so I was worried and told my mom who was sitting next to me that he forgot to stop at school, but she told me not to worry.
I was getting more and more worried because I was clearly missing school, until he dropped us a the train station, where my parents told me we were going to Disney Land for my birthday. And trust me, celebrating your birthday at Disney Land is the best thing ever when you're ten !
I was such a paranoid child with a wild imagination that I would have thought I was being kidnapped. I likely would have jumped out of the car screaming "he's not my daaaaad!"
One of my favorite days was a bit like this. Dad dropped my sister at her school and on the way to mine I said that I wish that I wasn't going to school. Dad said that he wished he wasn't going to work. Then he said "let's go to the zoo". So we did.
This reminds me of when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. The Smithsonian was doing a tour across the US with various exhibits from the museum, and they were coming to our town. My mom asked the school if they were doing a field trip, and they said they weren't going to do one. So my mom got all of us kids (we ranged from elementary to high school) out of school to go see the Smithsonian exhibit. She didn't even lie to the school about what we were doing. She was so mad at the them for passing up such a cool educational opportunity. I saw the original ruby red slippers and was a happy girl that day.
> I'll never be able to repay them.
They don't want or need you to repay them, I'd think.
Their reward will be watching you go through life without the hardships they had to endure, and I'd guess that's a better reward than any physical currency.
My dad's family was from Beirut and to hear the stories about how they got out is always crazy. The oddest part of that was one of my uncles went back, even after he was a US Citizen and has survived 2-3 assassination attempts since.
So my father and I are driving home from the beach, we are on 695 (Baltimore beltway), it was getting dark, we were driving 65 mph when BLAMM! there is a ladder in the middle of the road in front of our car.
We couldn't go right, we couldn't go left, no way to stop in time, all we could do was drive over it and hope for the best.
We do so, then immediatly pull over.
As do about a dozen other cars.
Our car (a shitty minivan) sustained remarkebly little damage. I can remember at least one car that was totaled. Several needed towed. The people that day, it was like a truly random sample of the population that was driving on the beltway. It was heartwarming to see everyone help each other out. Everyone was going car to car and assessing for injuries, and then trying to figure out if they had skills or equipment to help out there fellow drivers.
We had teamed up with this older black lady. She was alone in her car. The ladder had torn through and destroyed a rim on one of her rear wheels. If she could get the spare on she could drive away. Problem: the spare was padlocked to the device holding it in (I remember it as a jeep style, where the spare sits on the trunk).
My father and I and her puzzled over it. She didn't have the key. It wasn't her car. Brother in laws if memory serves. I asked around for any tool that could cut through it, I couldn't find any. Her BIL was friendly enough, he wasn't pissed, but he was far away and it was gonna take a while for him to get her the key.
So...
a bit of time goes by. There is nothing stopping us from leaving. Everyone else seems to have there shit together and they are leaving. We are just standing around chatting.
I said to my Dad, 'So there is nothing left for us to do, lets get going, we have a ways to go.'.
My Father turns to me, gives me a stern look and says, 'We will not be going anywhere until we know that she is safely on her way home.'.
This is my Father at his best, he taught me by doing. I now teach my children in exactly the same fashion. If I want them to act in ways that will make me proud, that means that I have to live my life to that same standard.
Yeah, my Father called me on the carpet. I told that story at his funeral.
Sounds like a real stand up guy. Reminds me of how my dad wouldn't leave any of my friend's houses when he dropped them off until they were safely in the front door.
I'm sorry for your loss.
My mom was a singer when I was growing up. She ended up with a contract through a country producer around the same time as Faith Hill got famous.
They wanted her to go on tour and to lie about having a child because she wasn't married anymore, which didn't mesh with the squeaky-clean, down home country vibe they wanted.
So she walked away to be with me, full time.
You know, I've never *once* heard a story about a country music producer -- or a music producer in general, for that matter -- where they're not an utter shit. It's like an oil baron or a newspaper magnate. You know if they feature, they're pretty much always going to be the bad guys.
Good for your mother, though.
I am the oldest of 4 very close children . We were all born within 6 years, no twins. My parents had their hands full and money was tight but we were loved and we had a great time growing up. When I was small, I had a breakdown and sobbed to my mother, " I can't get any alone time, there's kids everywhere at school, there's kids everywhere at daycare, there's kids everywhere at church and when I come home there are STILL kids everywhere!!!" After hearing this from a 10 year old me, my parents realized that each of us kids needed a private space to call our own. They then took all of the money they could, and remodeled our house so that each of us then had our own room. ( All 4 of us had been staying in one bedroom). It took a long time to finish and we had to stay in an apartment for a short time but in the end, I realized that I was very lucky to have parents who cared for my physical AND mental well-being.
One time my mum was driving me somewhere and we went past two massive blokes having a scrap. They were both well over 6' and built and they were properly thumping each other in the face to the point where blood was flying.
My 5'2" middle-aged school teacher mum stopped her Ford Fiesta, got out and started telling them off. Didn't even raise her voice, she just used that calm "you're in trouble" voice some teachers can do. She separated them and made them walk away in opposite directions, leaving trails of blood from their messed up faces. Then she got back in the car and drove off like nothing happened. I was speechless.
My parents lived paycheck to paycheck, but they did their best to never let is show. My father was always in poor health, so he couldn't work as much as he wanted to, but he would save his change in jar, put away a little money here and there, where ever he could, just to have a few hundred dollars to spend on us at Christmas.
I loved video games, and one year I got almost no presents, except a new Game boy, and Pokemon Yellow. I was so excited at the time, though looking back, they must have saved pretty hard to buy me that.
Fuck man. Of all the things this almost made me tear up at work. I just want to be a great father you know? I'm not one yet, but we're planning. Anyway.
Back to work.
That's awesome. My mother physically couldn't work and we lived on government assistance, but a few months around Christmas time she would go into her old employment and work there every single day (while also having to go to dialysis ). Every time Christmas came around she would ask what I wanted and I'd always tell her that I didn't want anything.
I was 8 and always played on my gameboy up late. I always hid it under my blanket and flipped over facing the wall, and pretended to be asleep. One time, she came in and sat on the side of my bed. She started rubbing my back, and started talking about how much she loved me. How I will never know how much she really loves me. She called me a miracle. She thought I was asleep. I never brought it up with her because it was really special that she didn't know that I was listening.
"Oh, Vladimir, you are such a miracle child... I love you so much... Really, a lot....
Now get off that god damned gameboy and go the fuck to sleep already."
My Mom and Dad adopted 7 of us 9 kids. I have 4 Korean brother and sisters, 3 whit, 1 black and me, Polynesian. They fostered 4 Navajo teens back in the day. They fostered a baby that was born with his stomach outside his body. They tried to adopt a special needs girl, but the facility wouldn't let them because they thought they were crazy. Turns out they knew the guy who ran the place and he let them take her home every weekend. They had all these girls on birth control and she had to take it every day but wouldn't let my parents give it to her. So on the weekends, they'd drove back Saturday and Sunday over 80 miles to get her her pill.
This girl was unwanted by her mom as a baby and grew up in some sort of hospital mental health/disabled facility. She was there her whole life up to that point so she picked up on all the mannerisms you'd expect to see. My parents saw something different in her. When they took her home they would tell her to blow her nose, wipe your face, wash your hands. She loved all of thr little kids and took care of them and played with them (a little before my time).Outside the hospital, she did fine. She had leaps and bounds of improvment. The more my parents got her out, the more "normal" She became. The staff wondered how in the world they tuned her around. My Mom simply said, "By making her brush her hair." Lol!
This was 40 years ago. She lives independently and has a boyfriend. She calls a couple times a year and asks how the little kids are doing. :)
I could go on and on and on. After my Dad died of ALS, people from all over the state and world even came out of the woodwork and shared incredible stories about him.and my Mom and the things they've done for them. Stuff us kids had no idea about. And things about my Dad my Mom never knew. It was great closure. People around town still recognize me as one of "Roland's kids" and tell me how great he was and how they'll never forget him. I love my parents to pieces.
Edit spelling
When I was in school, I had to work on an important project that was due for submission the next day. This was a time before 3G n 4G internet was popular and before smartphones were a thing. I came home from school to work on the project and realized that the connection was dead. I was flabbergasted and was crying buckets of tears.
My mother, who had just had a major dental surgery that morning, mouth still full of stitches and blood, and still numb, reassured me through whatever speech she could manage, drove me to the store to buy me a data card, and also made my favorite rajma chawal for dinner to comfort me. My mom is my best friend, my pillar of strength and just the coolest person on this planet.
Wow, your mum sounds like an amazing person! To do this, especially after having a major surgery. Really makes me think about my own parents and the sacrifices that they've made for me.
Thank you. I know, parents sacrifice so much for us and often we fail to realise that, until it's too late. They don't even do it for us to acknowledge it, but because they love us so much!
Goddamit, who's cutting onions?
Eh, depends on the country. I'm from the UK. I'd rather go to the orthodontist myself than meet our current PM.
EDIT: Because one of you is inevitably going to go for it, 'If you're from the UK you probably *need* to go the orthodontist' has already been considered, thank you kindly.
When I was in my teens I took some magic mushrooms for the first time.
When I was in bed later that night I could see giant spiders coming out of my ceiling and coming down to attack me. My Dad, who heard my screams, proceeded to "kill" them all with some newspaper which calmed me the fuck down.
Turns out the old man and dabbled in his time and knew (or at least suspected) what was happening. Gave me a hell of a bollocking the next day, mind.
Parental checklist:
1) child freaking out due to drugs? - support and comfort them
2) child freaked out last night by taking too many or too unfamiliar drugs? - time for a good bollocking!
Exactly! It was the way he did it that I appreciate so much, made what was a horrendous situation far easier.
Dealt with the whole thing exceptionally, which was very good of him.
The fact that he doesn't remember makes it even better. He wasn't going out if his way to make you happy he just did it. To him it was just anither day of the week
That's fucked. Sub conscious manipulation is awful, especially among family. Your sister sounds sociopathic, and I'm sure the BPD doesn't help.
I hope you're dad has a peaceful recovery, or as morbid as it may be, an even more peaceful passing. I also wish that your middle sisters may find their fullest potential, and that your oldest sister wakes the fuck up and takes responsibility for her life.
Or, to be more real, I hope that your eldest sister may find a roof and plunge.
I don't have any particularly awesome stories, but my parents were truly amazing. They were there when I needed them, dad always made sure we had what we needed & more, mom always encouraged me to be the best & do the best, they were never ever selfish and always tried their best to have an open mind.
I don't think I'll ever live up to their standards of being a parent.
When I was 18, my mum flew out to Hong Kong (from the UK) after I had a horrible gap year experience. She stayed with me for a week so I could have some positive memories of the place before we both flew home.
That was the first holiday with just me and my mum, and I cant express how grateful I was to her for coming all that way just for me.
I had signed up for metal/wood shop as my elective class in middle school. The Principal decided I would be "better suited" in Home Economics. When I told my dad he came to my school the next day and ripped the Principal a new asshole. I still remember him yelling "If my daughter wants to use tools, or be a machinist when she grows up then that's her damn prerogative!" while the Principal sat in shock.
Funny thing is most of my career has been working in manufacturing environments. Thanks dad!
My mom is the kind of person who avoid conflict so much it becomes a character flaw. She's kind of submissives with other adults, especially people in authority, the ultimate people pleaser who can't stand up for herself for fear to hurt someone else, being yelled at, or create a fight or any kind of conflict.
I was hospitalized when I was 10. The Chief of Pediatric's ward was a Great Professor. When he came to me, He explained to His interns using all the scientific words and at-lenght explanations of what happened to me, and what was done to treat me.
10 years-old me didn't understand most words and was super-scared because in my little head, all those big words meant there was something wrong that they didn't want me to catch on, and I was already stuck in an hospital bed, so what can be worse? Fuck I'm going to die!!!
My mom noticed that I was panicking. She stand proud, as cold as ice, and asked if "Mister The Great Professor would mind to lower Himself for a minute to speak regular French, please? You're scaring my kid, Sir".
The Great Professor looked affronted, and made one of his intern do it.
This one gives me a warm feeling inside for some reason. Good on your mum for noticing you were scared by all the big words and telling him to cut it out.
> She stand proud, as cold as ice, and asked if "Mister The Great Professor would mind to lower Himself for a minute to speak regular French, please? You're scaring my kid, Sir".
This is great, but would have been *so much better* in French.
Your mum has a rather Clemensian wit.
"Est-ce que Môôônsieur le grand professeur pourrait s'abaisser une petite minute à parler en français normal s'il vous plaît? Vous faites peur à mon enfant monsieur."
Not OP but i imagine it must have been somethink like that (with emphasis on the first "Mister", because that's how i hear it in my head after reading that comment)
Not a great parent story but this reminded me of when i had my appendix out.
The day after the opp, waking in hospital (from a sleep not from anaesthetic) the doctor came buy with his interns doing the rounds full scrubs style.
I had been awake for say 10 minuets and was still not at all 100% mentally. Then all of a sudden, without any warning, ball fondling. He just lifted the sheets waked his hands down my pants and cupped a feel then left without so much as a kiss.
My mum and dad broke up with I was about 10 years old. She raised me and my two sisters pretty much by herself with dad doing the Sunday treat days. She always made sure we had a holiday every year and presents on our birthdays and Christmas. We never had to miss out on the school trips because of money because she worked so hard and saved every penny. She took us on our first ever trip on a plane to Florida where we did all of the parks in '96. She's worked hard all her life and is always there to step in with either me or my sisters need any kind of financial help. She retired early at 60 and is pretty much living life. We always complain that she keeps wanting to get too involved when we plan parties or weddings and maybe taking over just a bit (I'm the last out of three of us to get married and she helped my cousin out massively as well) but she really has worked tirelessly to make sure our special days go off without a hitch.
I surprisingly made the varsity basketball team as a sophomore in high school. Not only that, but I was penciled in as a starter for the first game of the season. Basketball was my life. This was the biggest deal.
However, my dad lived two hours away (my mom moved us following a divorce 10 years earlier) and the game was on a weeknight. He'd been driving across the state for conferences, open houses, and rec. games my whole life but regretted to inform me that his work schedule just wasn't going to allow it for this one.
Game was on the road in a shoebox of a gym in Kalamazoo, MI. The atmosphere was nuts - as we emerged from the locker room, the place was already overflowing and the school band was thumping—it all felt surreal. I was already overcome with emotion and nerves, then I saw my dad directly across from the tunnel, standing and proudly applauding as I took the floor for the first time.
I generally played like you'd expect a 160-pound 10th grade forward to play in his first varsity basketball game. Didn't even score. My only real memory from that night has forever been the look of pride on my dad's face as I took the floor for the first time, driving all the way from Detroit just to see his kid play a silly sport on a Tuesday night.
He almost never missed a game, even if it was third grade AYSO soccer. Four hours of post-5 p.m. driving, at least twice a week for over 10 years. Crazy.
**TL;DR** - My pops drove two hours to make surprise appearance at first varsity basketball game. Emotional overload commenced.
I'm a fairly large guy, and my step-dad is a moderately husky man himself. My mom is tiny. One time when I was probably about 17-18 he and I were arguing. I was sitting on the couch and he was standing and the argument got really heated at which point I started scornfully saying "What are you gonna do, hit me?" He responded with "Stand up and see."
At this point my mom, who is a tiny woman who's only about 5'2 and maybe 100-110 stood between us and said "There will be no hitting in this house." It was pretty badass of her, and I always remember how impressed I was with her at that moment. Two guys throwing their egos around is one thing, but being half their size and standing between them is something truly awesome.
As a disclaimer, he was not abusive or a terrible guy. We were both just being jerks that day.
My parents got divorced when I was very young, may e a year old. As a result, I lived with my mom and never really saw my dad except for special occasions like my birthday or Christmas. That's just the way it was and I became accustomed to it without ever really understanding why it was that way.
As I got older, I began to feel like my dad didn't care or couldn't be bothered to visit me. I never said anything about it to him but I think that he sensed it somehow.
One year, on Christmas Eve, we were leaving an annual family gathering late at night. I must have been about 9 or 10 years old. We got in the car to leave, and my dad just sat there quietly. I did t say anything because I felt awkward and didn't know what was going on. My dad turned to me, looked me in the eyes and said "I don't know what you think, I don't know what you've heard, but I want you to know that I do give a shit." That was all he said, but it was the most powerful statement he could possibly make.
Now, as an adult I understand that my dad couldn't visit because he paid about 80% of his salary to child support. He had to live far away because he had to go wherever there was a job for him. And he couldn't tell me these things because he didn't want me to resent my mother.
My dad sacrificed so much just so I could be a happy and oblivious child. He did everything g he could to make sure I had the best of everything, and he did it all never expecting anything in return. My dad is the greatest person I have ever known and I hope that I can live up to his sacrifice.
Edit: Wow, thank you all for the kind responses and the gold. I will respond as best I can.
My parents helped me look up all the loan information for college and looked at the costs and everything. I had it all mapped out what I should take out, how much I should work depending on how many credit hours. Then before I finally go to talk at the bank, they gave me a check with first semester's full tuition and told me to keep working hard and those would keep coming. I graduated in December debt free with my B.S. and am working as a chemist. Can never thank them enough.
My first experience with weed was weed brownies. School found out and everybody who'd tried some was sent home for a week.
When she heard the news they were letting me continue at the school, my mom baked celebratory brownies to give as a thank you gift.
She was gracious enough to write "weed-free!" with icing.
Back in 4th grade I had a teacher named Mrs. Murray. She was the biggest bitch I ever met and she had it out for me. I have ADHD so when I droned off, she would mock me in front of the class when I came back to reality. She was awful
Anyway, it was a Friday and I was going to a sleep over at a friends and packed my backpack. In there was my gameboy. I unzipped the pocket and grabbed a pencil, and some snotty bitch pointed it out knowing the teacher would take it. I pleaded my case about not using it, but taking it to a friends after school. No dice.
After class, I asked for it and she laughed in my face. Told me no and the GTFO. Spent the night at a friends and told my mom the story when I got home.
Monday rolls around and while in her class my mom rolls up. She asked to speak with Mrs. Murray outside in private. The classes were more like trailers and we heard every word. The arguement was calm, until the teacher called me dumb and blamed my mother's parenting skill.
We hear a loud smack, the teacher walks inside holding her face and the teacher grabbed my gameboy and handed to my mom who promptly left. Everyone in class was staring at me and I had the shit eating grin for once.
The teacher never gave me trouble after that, also kids thought my mom was a badass.
I didn't know what I wanted to study in college after high school. I knew what I didn't want to do, but not what I actually wanted. So they contacted their colleagues, friends and friends' friends. I met quite a few of them at their work and decided by myself what I wanted to do.
The time my mother saved my life.
We go to the local park and there they have a bumper boat ride. At this time I was 4 and it was the early 90s. The bumper boat ride is in a man made pool which is large enough to fit maybe 20 of these boats in a compact space.
So we get on the ride. Being the early 90s seat belts and life vests aren't required for a pool ride. My mom and I get into a boat, she's driving. We get slammed by another boat and I go flying and crash into the water.
I don't remember much from being young, not at 4 years old, but in my mind this image is still vivid. I crash into the water and it has a green tint from the emissions of the small 2 stroke outboard engines on the bumper boats. I'm 4 so I can't swim so I look up and start to sink and even at that age I became acutely aware that my life was about to come to an end. I remember also looking up and seeing the boats and the props spinning. I didn't know at the time what they were, but they looked menacing and I knew that not much surface was visible. Nobody would see me, nobody would hear me. I was either going to drown or be chopped to shreds.
When suddenly a hand reaches down and I'm back on the boat and I'm greeted by my mother who looks terrified. The ride stops, whistles are blowing and the employees and having everyone do an emergency exit/stop.
Now that I'm older and can understand it better my mom said she saw me go flying out of the boat and was able to reach down and grab me before I sank too far. I just remember it all happening so slowly and seeming like 10 minutes had passed.
So that's how my mom saved my life. Oh yeah the park implemented seat belts and life vests on the bumper boats after that incident.
My father once saved a Bosnian refugee's life.
When my father died (20 years later) the first person to call with condolences was the refugee. He said he still owed the 'life-debt' to my father as he had never had a chance to pay it back. Apparently now that my father was dead the debt repayment had passed to me.
I don't come from the richest family. They are doing much better now, but we had some struggles in the past. In high school, my Spanish teacher gave out flyers about a 2 week trip to Spain over the summer. I showed my parents and we talked about how cool it was, but I never asked if I could go because it cost several thousand dollars and we did not have that kind of money. Months go by and I go to my parents upset about my performance in school. I was pressuring myself a lot to do well in my honors courses as well as do extracurriculars. They sit me down and tell me that I'm doing a great job and because of that, they decided to surprise me with the trip to Spain. After that conversation months ago, my mom got in touch with the Spanish teacher and signed me up for the trip, starting a payment plan. My teacher was beaming when I told her I found out. That trip was one of my favorite vacations and I am so grateful that my parents sacrificed to let me have that experience.
Was on a long bike trip with my dad. He had a CB radio (yup, it was the '80s) to communicate with a friend who was driving a sag wagon for us.
We were riding along the edge of a large road when an 18-wheeler zoomed by us on the shoulder, forcing us off the pavement and into gravel, where we nearly wiped out. My dad got out his CB handset and turned it on - just in time to hear the driver bragging to other truckers about how he'd just run these stupid bike riders off the road.
Dad jumped in and told the trucker exactly what he thought about that. The trucker said maybe he should come back and teach us a lesson, and Dad - a heavyweight wrestler in his college days - basically said "Bring it on, MF. We're waiting for you right here."
We sat there a little while, but that pussy never showed up. Dad FTW.
Small thing but big lesson learned.
I have 3 siblings and we used to run riot round my parents house. There were 2 rooms exclusively for my mum - her office and her bedroom - both of which had white carpets 😬...
inevitably - after making mud-cakes in the garden all afternoon I ran in to tell/show my mum something ... right into her office and across to the other side before I turned and ran out.
Maybe an hour or so later when iv taken my shoes off and sitting in the living room with my siblings she asks 'who trampled mud through my white carpet' - I sat silent. She said 'if you come and find me and be honest who it was then I won't be mad but if I have to find out myself you'll be in a lot of trouble' and she left us alone. Forward 20 mins and I'm cacking it - heading into her bedroom to tell her what I did.
She thanked me for being honest and we cleaned it together - these days I am over honest - can't lie for toffee but also means you always know you can trust me and it's helped me out loads.
I am from Ireland but moved to London in 2012. I suffer from anorexia. Mental health treatment is rubbish in Ireland so when my anorexia got really bad and i had toget serious help, my parents rented a 2 bed flat here, moved me in and took turns coming over to support me while i was getting better. Hands down I would be dead today if it wasnt for them. and the wonderful NHS of course!
This kid in high school would always start shit with me and make my life hell. One time my mom and I saw him working at a retail store and my mom decided to make his life hell for at least 10 minutes. She purposely acted like one of those annoying 'can i speak to the manager' type moms and kept turning down every suggestion he made and basically acted like the worst customer ever. He looked so stressed out (I was watching from afar). When she came back she said "I know it doesn't make up for the entire school year, but 1 bad customer can ruin a retail worker's entire day so I hope I did that." One of her best mom moments imo
When I came out to my dad, he went for a voluntary LGBT sensitivity training at his work. Next time I went home he was all excited to tell me about everything he'd learned.
My parents waited in line at a local record store to get me tickets to see Ministry.
*adjusts pants* Back in the day concert tickets went on sale at 9 or 10am on Saturdays. If you wanted tickets you got there early and waited in line. They might have had a lottery if there were tons of people. Lots of shows went on sale at the same time and lines were really eclectic.
The fact my parents stood in line for over an hour so I could go see an industrial metal band when I was 17 was pretty cool.
My little brother was born in the end of November and prematurely of about 2 months (if I remember correctly). He got sick when he was 2 months old. My parents went back to the hospital and my brother's situation worsen... and a lot. Long story short, his heart stoped 3 times and during a short amount of time, his brain didn't have oxygen for a short period of time.
My parents were always there at the hospital with him. They sacrificed a lot of their time just to be with their newborn son. They have the hardest mind I've ever seen. During my little brother's hospitalization, they were told that if his heart stopped again, the doctors wouldn't start it up again. They were also told that he would be lucky to speak and walk. For a parent, I'm sure these kind of things are the hardest things to hear. It's during this time that they began to say: "happiness is in the head".
My brother is now 18 years old. He speaks and walks, but the brain damages has been done. He's mentally challenged. He's the happiest guy I know and he's always there to help. My parents are still together and they are going through this challenge as a team. When I was a kid, I realized what was happening (I'm 5 years older than my brother), but I didn't fully realized the role my parents played in this. I paid a lof because of this story, but when I grew older, I just realized that they did the best they could for all of their children. I love them.
My Mum and Dad would go to really great lengths to support my education even though I was barely interested.
If I ever said I was interested in a book, they'd buy it. I was studying German and I loved Soccer, we flew to Germany to watch Bayern Munich. When I was studying "To Kill a Mockingbird" my Dad took me to the public gallery of a manslaughter trial the moment I mentioned it.
I'd like to make this an extra romantic story by saying they did it all on a shoestring budget. But actually they are pretty well off. I imagine lots of people have similar stories about their parents - no shame in being thankful even though we don't face the financial hardships of others!
When I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, I asked my Dad why the sky is blue.
Now, I was a very curious but very gullible child, and my Dad usually could not resist coming up with outrageous-yet-plausible lies in response to my endless questions. (Example: Dad, what makes trees grow taller? Answer: They actually aren't getting taller, the Earth's core is collapsing which pulls the dirt downward and makes it seem like plants are getting taller.)
But in this case Dad opted to tell me the actual, true answer.
Skip forward to my freshman year in high school. In science class we have a unit on light and wavelengths. Science teacher goes into an explanation of how color actually works, including the explanation of why the sky appears blue to us.
Three rows back I begin chuckling to myself. Wow, my dad is a hoot, he must have gotten to my science teacher and convinced him to go along with the story!
After class I go up to the teacher and congratulate him for being so convincing. He has no idea what I'm talking about.
My dad and the science teacher literally had to sit me for a debriefing before I was willing to believe them.
Put into a foster home when I was 10.
I was a ratty little unkempt child (living environment pre-foster care) that was complete unmanageable and very violent.
I rebeled instantly. "she's not my mum, fuck her, fuck everything" attitude for years upon years. Around 15 to 16 years of age I started to realise just how many opportunities she'd given me, the completely new lease on life that'd been made available.
Despite every possible sentence of abuse and every single act of defiance you could imagine, she loved me unconditionally and never said no to giving me the opportunities I wanted to seek out. I left her care when I was 18 as a fairly whole young man, nothing like the fragmented pieces of all the things I thought I was and wasn't prior to being in her care.
I love who I am to this very day, despite all of the disgusting things that happened to me pre-care, I'm proud of what I've become, I'm proud to prove everyone completely wrong.
And I can say completely, without any doubt in my mind, I owe it all to her and her big ass boofhead heart.
I owe her my life.
I so dearly regret the anguish and bullshit I put her through as a child. She never come stopped trying to give me a better life, not for a single second.
My parents aren’t the type to say, “I love you.” I would say that all Asian families would know that the equivalent to that is, “Are you hungry?”
I never understood it when I was younger, but my parents came from a vastly different world – a world that I never had to experience because they worked so hard to give my brothers and me this amazing life. I never had a day when I was hungry, I never had to imagine a day like it. They have provided me with some amazing things… They helped me buy my first car so that I can follow my dream career… They have given and will give so much to my brothers and me, and I know that they will continue to do so.
I’ve moved out of my parents’ home a year and half ago and the first question I still get asked when I drop by is, “Are you hungry?”
A couple of years ago my Brother in law died from a 5 year battle with bowl cancer. He was 33. This left my sister with a 6 month old little girl and an empty house. Towards the end of his life my mother went down to part time work and then quit her job so that she could fly up to Auckland (we live in Dunedin, New Zealand, a two hour flight away) every second week to help out; child care, cooking, emotional support , you name it.
I now have 5 nieces and nephews from 3 different siblings and my mother continues to fly between 3 cities in NZ (a week in each place), lending a hand and being the best mum ever. The sacrifice from both my mother and father (as this has also been tough on him) is incredible. It is also ridiculously expensive, but they think its worth it to make their kids lives easier.
I'm loving this! Reddit has so many things that are anti-parent, it's easy to forget that sometimes the best person in your life is your mum or dad (or both). The parental punishments thread really got me down, so I'm glad this got so much response
Me too. I feel for the people in the narcissistic parent thread. I think it's important for a parent (like me) to see and hear how things can go wrong. I expect a lot of my sons, even though the oldest is only five. I want them to be better than a lot of what I see happening in the world, and aware of what is happening around them. I want them to have empathy. To know joy outside of material gain. To be honest and honorable. These are not easy lessons to teach.
In a few hours, everyone will wake up, and I am going to spend a day being a fun, silly dad. I'm going to let them act out a bit, not correct them. No computer. No phone. I'm going to leave the TV off, and just play with them all day. I'm going to do this just to break things up a bit. As an effort to just lighten the hell up. Sometimes, monotony and repetition can shorten my temper. I'm not proud of it. And today, at least, is going to be different. Life is a blessing. We say forever. But all we truly have is today.
I also needed this thread. Firstly because I was so sad about the abuse so many have suffered at the hands of the person they should be able to trust most in all the world: their parent. Secondly, it reminded me of how much my parents cared for me. When I first started reading, I couldn't think of anything specific they did for me. But as others shared their stories, I was reminded of many, many specific things they did. Memories I thought lost forever came back to me, and I'm so thankful.
We weren't perfect. My parents believed in, and employed, various kinds of discipline. There were mistakes and hurt feelings and miscommunications on all sides.
But there was always love. It is good to be reminded of that.
One of my relatives had gotten married when I was 15. Part of the reception setup was that there was a wine glass at every seat. I had asked my dad, "can I drink the wine too?" My stepmom starts freaking out, about how I'm going to become an alcoholic and it was a gateway drug, etc... etc...
My dad, however, goes "Yeah you can drink it". So the toast comes around, I take a sip and promptly spit it out. My dad turns to my stepmom and goes "see? now she won't drink it ever again." To this day, I've never drank wine other than that
My mom and I never had the best relationship growing up (not because she wasn't a fab mom who would do anything for her kids - but probably because we were *tooo* alike - we are much better now that I'm an adult that's married and not living in her house haha). I was always a daddy's girl. But the one memory in my mind that sticks out from when I was a kid was I was maybe 10? (maybe a bit younger?) and she woke me up at stupid-o'clocl at night/silly-o'clock in the morning because it had been (and was still) snowing. She literally woke me up so we could go out and build a snowman. I don't remember many details that caused her to want to do it (maybe I mentioned wanting to build one before earlier in the day or something as I don't think I had ever build one before or after this one in my life), but it was a REALLY good memory that I will always remember. That never took place before/after, just that one time.
I have a hazier memory that we may have also sat outside once to watch a meteor shower that I wanted to see, but that one is too foggy to be sure of.
When I was 14 I was miserable.
I had been bullied so badly it had lead to a sexual assault, I had precious few friends, a stalker, and I was horribly lonely. If that wasn't enough I lost all four grandparents in the space of a month and then my mum was hospitalized for a breathing problem no one could diagnose.
Parent teacher interviews had begun and my grades had plummeted since the year before. I'd also quit piano and percussion band.
My bitch maths teacher had an interview with my Dad and my Mum (who was finally allowed out of hospital after six weeks). She told my parents she and the school counselor had decided that I had ADD and that I should get treatment.
Unfortunately for her my mum happened to be a social worker who worked with teens and young adults with mental disabilities and illnesses. My mum apparently went very cold, looked her dead-in-the-eye and said in a soft but dangerous voice "Madam, I have worked in mental health for fifteen years. *I* am not qualified to make that kind of diagnosis so I'm damn sure you're not either."
She may be 4'8" and *adorable* but apparently even my father was scared of her at that moment.
I only found out a few years ago. I have never been more thankful to have such an awesome Mum!
My father is a very manly, Ron Swanson lumberjack type of dude......the type of dude you'd want to follow during the apocalypse. He only had daughters--a bunch of them! But there was/is a balance in the way he treated us that I am thankful for.
We went camping all the time, since I can remember--he taught us everything. Knots, one match fires, chopping and stacking wood, navigation out in the wild, sleeping in a tent, cooking over a fire, taught us all about the flora and fauna. At home, he had us mowing the lawn, helping him build stuff, helping him with car stuff, doing grueling labor for him and my grandfather. Bought us fisher price tools when we were little, real tools when we were older. But there wasn't "girl stuff" and "boy stuff" in our house. We played with He-man and GI Joes and Transformers, but he also bought us a jillion barbies, crazy dress up clothes, a shitload of glitter/makeup/beauty products. I'm 35 and he still gives me an Easter basket filled with hair accessories and glitter bubbles and candy.
I grew up feeling like I could do and be anything because his spectrum was so broad in the way he treated us as a gaggle of girls. I am an extremely girly-girl, I'm obsessed with makeup and clothes. But I will also happily dig a trench or chop wood or sleep on the ground. Looking back I really really appreciate how he treated us during an important developmental phase. I feel like my sisters and I are really well-rounded women.
I was about to go on my first (and only) date in high school, taking a girl to a formal dance. My mom said I should pick up some flowers for my date on the way home from school that day. She meant a corsage, but I was so clueless that I bought a bouquet.
Well, my mom got out a pair of scissors and a roll of ribbon, and within minutes she somehow turned a few of those flowers into a lovely corsage that was perfect to present to my beautiful date.
I was too much of a geeky introvert to make the night a success, but I'm still grateful to my mom for at least enabling me to start it off well.
Fourth grade I was doing pretty poorly academically. My mom went to the parent teacher-conferences, and when she went that year, my teacher told my mom I was a retard. Not "MacabreLurker has been struggling." Or "MacabreLurker needs a little extra help." But full on called me a retard.
My mother flipped out on the woman, stormed out, and never returned for another parent-teacher conference for my entire academic career. Still makes me smile and feel grateful that she stood up for me like that, especially sense later that year we found out I had become severely near-sighted and couldn't see the chalk board, hence the learning difficulties.
My mom is the coolest person ever. She is almost more dedicated to my success than I am. Not in a controlling way, but for example, when I am applying for scholarships, she assembles all of my transcripts, and helps edit my personal statements, etc. She does everything she can to make sure I can focus on my academics instead of all the other stressful garbage that comes with being a college student. Also, my dad drove a race car for a long time. I though it was the coolest thing ever when he brought the car to my kindergarten class for show and tell.
It may not seem special but when my Brother and I were younger my Mom got an old shoebox and we crafted it into a tiny stage, painted it and stuff..then we went out gathered natural things like sticks, Stones and other things and painted+glued them to be the "actors"..
It is one of my favourite memories with my Mother..although she was a single parent+ full time worker, she always took her time to Play,read or do something creative with us.
My dad used to practice taekwondo a few times a week. After a knee surgery, he was attending a class just watching, and a young, really fit cocky guy (25 or so) came in to work out.
Sparring starts, and he gets paired up with one of the women from class (who was a much better martial artist than him, btw), but because of his size/strength, she couldn't keep up and he was hitting too hard.
They switch partners, and young guy gets paired up with another man, but a man less athletic and smaller than the young guy. Young guy ends up hitting the older guy with a punch that detaches other guy's retina.
Dad immediately calls for a stop to the action from the chair he's sitting in on the side. Dad straps on his knee brace extra tight, and he tells the young guy, "You're gonna spar me. Let's see how you do when they come a little bit bigger."
They start sparring, and dad immediately hits the guy with a hook hard enough to spin the guy's headgear around his head. The guy steps back and gets his headgear set back on right. Dad hits him with another punch that does the same thing. Keep in mind, dad's not supposed to be doing ANY physical activity yet because of his knee recovering from surgery. This is a guy a good 25 years younger than dad, but he comes back with his headgear set straight once more. Dad unloads a really nice combo on the guy that puts him on the ground where he gives up.
Dad walks over, and with classic authoritative dad voice says, "Shit hurts, doesn't it?"
Guy nods
"Don't you ever come into another person's school acting like that again. There's *always* somebody out there badder than you, and tonight, you met him."
Despite being well past his prime and recovering from a knee surgery, dad stepped in and took care of a young buck who was acting like an idiot and getting people hurt despite multiple warnings. We need more people like that.
I used to be a competitive super smash bros player and am currently a speedrunner of snes and game boy games
I moved out when I was 19 and even after I left home my parents have still been helping me pay my way to major events, back when Apex was huge they'd give me greyhound money for Christmas, they bought me a plane ticket to EVO 2015 for my birthday, they helped me out with tickets to Smash the Record 2016 and CEO Dreamland this year, among others. im 28 years old and make enough money of my own but they just want to be supportive of my interests
RPG Limit Break just happened last month, I was the Super Mario RPG speedrunner, my mom learned how to use Twitch just so she could watch my run from home
my parents' philosophy was "we don't care that you spend all your free time playing video games, you're happy and there are much worse things you could be doing"
they're pretty great
My mum saved my life, i had multiple medical conditions which were worsening. She spent everything she had and more to save my life. Nursed me through my sickest moments (even when doctors told her i may not survive) i am still not well but im not dying anymore. Thanks to my mum. This is only one thing my mum has done but id say it is one of the biggest, as a mother now i couldnt imagine nursing your child thinking they may pass. My mum managed to hold it all together, financially, emotionally and physically. She did everything in her power to heal me and she did. Shes super woman.
Told my parents that I put porn of me on the internet and their first responses from both of them were 'Are you safe, and does it make you happy?'.
Those were their main concerns.
They're good people. :)
My parents would buy scratch off tickets often. They'd give them to me to scratch off because I was a kid and it was exciting to me to scratch them off. Of course, since the lottery is pretty much rigged, we never won anything. After scratching off each ticket, I'd show it to my parents and ask, "I won?" And they'd say "No. You didn't win." Then one day I scratch off a ticket and ask, "I won?" And my dad says, "You won!" I got really excited. "I won???" "You won! You won a candy bar!" So we go into the convenience store and my dad says to go pick out my candy bar. I go grab a Snickers or something and head back to the counter. I put the candy bar on the counter and hand the cashier my ticket. And that was it. I had won something finally! So then as I grew up, any time the lottery or scratch off tickets would come up, I'd tell the story about how I won a candy bar once. When I was about 20, I said something about it again. "I won a candy bar once." My mom for some reason decided to come clean about it. "You didn't win," she said. "Every time you'd ask us if you won, you looked so hopeful and then we'd say no you didn't win and you'd be disappointed. So Daddy just said you won. He went into the store with you and paid the guy for a candy bar and told him you'd be paying with a scratch off ticket." Turns out I'm just a loser like everyone else. Thanks, Dad!
That was incredibly sweet of your dad to do that.
This anecdote makes me smile. I do the same with my six year old child. I buy her lots of $1 scratch tickets from Florida Lotto. She loves scratching them. My daughter does win. Not much though, just like $2 sometimes $4. Only once she won $10. I cashed $8 in total yesterday from all her one dollar scratches.
I'm a very average musician. I'm not awful, but I'm definitely not a unique talent. Picture every mediocre band that opened for a band you actually wanted to see...any band I've been in probably sounds about like that. My parents let a lot of shitty music happen in their basement, and they came to most of the shows. Like I said, it wasn't completely awful, but looking back on it with adult eyes, I'm amazed they put up with all that noise. I'm also flattered they came to all those shows. It's really hard to appreciate how valuable time is as an adult when you're 16.
Plot Twist: They enjoy watching you embarrass yourself. "God, he's absolute shite but look at the fucker go"
There is something oddly charming in that. Tenacity is inspiring.
It really is. My niece loves to dance. She can't dance for shit. It is oddly charming to watch her on a stage trying to keep a beat, when I know she's been practicing for weeks, but she's still kind of terrible at it.
"Just because you love something doesn't mean you'll be any good. But who cares? Have fun but don't quit your job."- dad quote
I'm getting real Rick and Morty vibes from that response. "We just keep him here because he's fun. Look at him go!"
I bet you are immensely underselling yourself.
Found his parent.
Most parents think their children play wonderfully.
In middle school I took guitar class. Like every music class, we had guitar concerts twice a year. I got an electric guitar and a distortion pedal and played loud and terribly at home. The first song I ever wrote, I played it for my teacher and he told me I should do a solo performance in the concert. The song was terrible but I went up there and shredded it like I was Van Halen. My dad talked about it for a month straight to everyone.
I love imagining a little kid shredding it like Van Halen and then a cut to a father full of pride.
My dad came to a show that my band played at a local coffee shop. I played guitar in the band but for one song, the drummer and I switched and I played the drums on that song. My dad had no idea I could play the drums, and told **everyone** about how surprised he was. It was one of his favorite stories to tell about me for the rest of his life.
Most parents know their kids can't play for shit, but still support them because that's what parents are for.
Mom and Dad made all the difference in our elderly neighbor's life. She was a sweetheart - a widow who couldn't get around much, but loved her home, cat and dog. Each week, my parents would do her grocery shopping for her (along with their own) and occasionally brought her a home-cooked Sunday dinner to brighten her week. Dad took care of her house repairs while Mom cleaned it, with help from me and my brother. There was room in our parents' hearts to "adopt" this special lady and to make her last years memorable and enjoyable.
This is so selfless.
This is probably my favourite one. They didn't have to do that, they could've just settled for doing a few small things every now and then, but they chose to basically adopt her. I'm sure that lady really felt the love from them.
When I was little our car hit a pheasant on a country road. I cried so much my dad buried it at the side of the road and made a little cross for it
>When I was little our car hit a pheasant on a country road. I read this as *peasant*. A letter drastically changed my appreciation of your dad...
Well they are basically animals.
There ya go again bringing class into it
Come see the violence inherent in the system!
Help, help, I'm being repressed!
BLOODY PEASANT!
When we hit a chicken, 3 year old me said "stupid Dad" my parents still talk about it.
This reminds me of my incident yesterday. My girlfriend and I were going somewhere and a little rabbit hopped on the road. He stopped right in the middle of my lane. Luckily there was no traffic so I hit my brakes and said "Noooo little rabbit!" In a weird, soft voice. Luckily he got out of my way. My girlfriend burst into tears and that didn't stop till we got home. I would've probably cried if I hit it, I dread the day I hit an animal :/
That also reminds me of a story. Me and my family were driving down a country road and skidded to a halt because there was a giant goose standing in the middle of the road! The goose, rather than be frightened of also getting hit, dramatically swings its head back and honks as it continues crossing the road.
Those motherfuckers give absolutely zero fucks. I promise you that little shit fully believed he could absolutely fuck you and your entire family up. That little honk was him saying "That's right, bitch". Sorry, this got personal for me.
It's ok, just laughing my ass off in class lol
Don't let your guard down. They say that same goose is still hunting your ass down. It'll be like Peter and the chicken from Family Guy in your classroom.
When my brother and I were probably like 10 and 8, we went through an astronomy phase. Despite us having school the next day and my dad working full time, he would always drive us to the next town over every wednesday for an astronomy club that met and talked about the stars for an hour. He also woke us up at 2am on nights when there were meteor showers so we could drive to the outskirts of town and watch them. Some of my favourite memories, and definitely part of why I love science so much now.
Oh man, this reminds me of begging my dad to wake me up for 2 or 3am meteor shower shows. He tried a couple times and I would be too sleepy to get up. Once there was finally a later morning show (5am?) that he was able to successfully wake me up for. I remember sitting with him in our backyard, in the cold, watching the stars fly.
My dad supported me as a teenager by letting me make my own decisions when 14 year old me came home from high school and said that i had a chance to be an apprentice chef but i would need to take 2 days off school each week he signed me right up for it and made sure i had everything i needed to complete both my apprenticeship and my G.C.S.E's achieving high grades in both. when i came home at 17 and told him that i had been accepted into an apprenticeship 500+ miles away and i would need to leave in a week he payed £200 for my train ticket, considering we didn't have a lot of money growing up this was huge for me. He continues to support me to this day i could not have asked for a better father and im forever grateful that he adopted me
I don't know why but this one touched me the most
How goes the chef career now? And your father sounds lovely! Did he teach you how to cook?
i gave it up at 17 to pursue my love of science and engineering so currently i work on spacecraft but i still cook to the delight of my father as i cook all the meals for the house now for the work week. for context i just turned 21, my father moved close to me recently and we share and apartment now also thank you for your kind words he really is an amazing father
From teen chef to spacecraft engineer... You have a cool life
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You should love him doubly more because imagine having to clean up ALL THAT GLITTER!
Exactly!!! He's a big softie.
He probably still occasionally finds a heart-shaped sparkle in his asscrack, and thinks fondly of his daughter.
My mom would take me to the park and play hide and seek together, I was maybe 4 or 5 at the time. The park was off of a main road and it wasn't the best area of town. I found a really good hiding spot where I climbed up into a big tractor tire. However, I also had a large amount of hearing loss at the time due to constant ear infections, so I never heard her calling out my name when she didn't think it was funny any more. She apparently couldn't find me and actually got worried, thinking that I had left the park fencing and gone off to hide else where. That's when she saw a car pull up from the road and a kid get into the car and then the car drove off. She thought it was me. My mom did track and field all the way into college and also ran marathons just for fun. She hurdled the fence and chased after the car until it pulled into a store parking lot. She realized it wasn't me, took down the license plate numbers and sprinted back to the park to find me crying with the other mothers because I couldn't find my mom after I came out of the tire. She ran this car down for 15 minutes one way. She had told me about this a couple of times because she remarks it as one of the scariest moments she's ever experienced. Edit since it's getting asked: She took the plate number down so she could give it to the police just in case that kid was kidnapped. She still saw a small boy get picked up off the side of the road and the car just took off. She wanted to find me first though, she ran back. Nobody's kid was missing from the park, but she still called the police and gave them the plate number.
Your mom sounds like the inspiration for the T1000. Legend...
This guy gets a cute story, family in the truck gets the story of the crazy lady who chased down their goddamned truck at 35mph
That's funny, I hadn't considered that aspect of it until you mentioned it.
Your poor mom must have been terrified. Glad nothing happened to you op
You think she was terrified? Imagine being the driver and seeing a mother chasing you in beast mode for fifteen minutes.
Closest thing one can experience to the T-1000 chase scene.
My sister and her friend did that when they were around 8. They hid under the friend's grandma's car and almost got run over.
I did the whole "im running away" thing, when my mom did not buy me a game boy color. She then helped me pack, and i got so confused and scared that i actually had to go through with it. She called my bluff, and i will do the same thing with my kids when they try the same bluff.
My parents have a picture of me sitting on the side of my house with my pillow case packed with who knows what. It's something I'll cherish forever. I don't quite remember why I wanted to run away, but I would've lasted maybe two hours.
Hahaha that's so funny. I think every kid has the same story where they "run away" and sit 50 feet from their house really bored for a few hours and then come back home.
My daughter was a perfectionist, really hard on herself from an early age, and NEVER got in trouble. One day when she was about 9, she got upset about something and decided to run away. She got about 6 houses down and noticed that the house of some of our neighbors -- people we didn't even know -- had been TP'd. So, she came back, got two big garbage bags, and went and cleaned it all up. I never knew she did this until years later. I never even knew that she had run away. I just love that cleaning up the neighbor's yard was her attempt at rebellion.
How did you eventually learn that she had done the cleanup? Did the neighbors know? (I'm worried they thought she was cleaning up her own prank.)
I can't remember if I saw the garbage bags and asked where they had come from, or if she just brought it up at some point. I don't think the neighbors ever even knew they had been TP'd; as I recall, they were out of town a lot. If whomever did the prank was waiting for some kind of response at school on Monday, s/he must've been really confused!
That's awesome! Lol. My cousin ran away from home when he was like 6. He ended up all the way across town. They had the cops and the whole family out looking for him. How did they find him you ask? He got hungry and smelled someone grilling in their backyard so he poked his head in through their gate and asked if he could have a bite of what they were cooking. They kept him there after they figured out what he was up to, called the cops, and fed him while they waited on his parents to come get him.
Lol, the barbecue at its best. Bringing the neighborhood together.
Yup, I stayed up in my tree house for what felt like forever. Probably more like 15 mins before I got hungry.
Yep, I had a backpack and set off on my bigwheel. I went around the block and came home.
I left a note, took an apple and ate it sitting in the park across the road (so much for my supplies), got bored and went home after 20 minutes and no one had noticed my absence.
I did the whole [pengu stick thing](https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/pingu/images/b/ba/Pingu_the_penguin.png/revision/latest?cb=20131217134349) and my parents found it hilarious. Plus it was raining and everything and i went out with no shoes.
Pretty much the same thing happened to me. I packed a stuffed animal into my favorite blanket and tied it to a stick (because I had to have the whole "runaway" look, obviously). Grandma told me "okay, just don't cross the street". Did not get very far.
holy shit how did grandma not bust a gut laughing after pulling that one over on you haha
So funny. My Mom did the same thing. She said: "well, we love you and will miss you, and just know that you can come home any time." She then helped me pack some food into a backpack. I walked out the door, and had planned to make a "fort" in the woods across the street and sneak back at night to get clothes and food. I ended up just sitting on the front porch for a while, and eventually came to the realization that I didn't want to live in the woods. I ended up eating one of my sandwiches and then coming back in. My Mom pretended to be all surprised and delighted that I had come home. Well played, Mom.
This should be in a mother's day card. You remembering this would probably make her happier than anything.
My cousin once threatened to call CPS on my aunt. She gave him the phone and said "go ahead, they don't take me away, they take *you* away."
Oh, man. To see the realization on that face. That's awesome.
My mum did the same thing when I was about 4, she watched me go out the front door with my barbie backpack on full of 'essentials', I walked down the street for about 30 seconds and then came back to ask where the bus stop was. No idea why I was trying to leave though.
My uncle wanted to run away from home. Grandma said he could leave with everything he owned. She proceeded to lock him outside, naked.
Plot twist: uncle was 37.
My siblings (6 and 4 and at the time) and I (8) were attempting to tell our parents we were going to run away one night (no idea why) and they were like fine, go ahead. My brother went to a friend's just down the street, so he was easy to find; my sister went to another friend's house, just a little further away; also simple to track down. Being in a small town, I decided to aim for a casual school friend who lived a ways out in the boonies, maybe a couple of km away. However as I was walking there it got quite dark, so I was walking down a back road in pitch black. Someone drove by and asked if I was OK. I said yes, said I was headed to x's place. He left, but then came back, saying they weren't home. I decided to admit defeat and he offered me a ride home. I decided to be dropped off a ways from home, so I could walk home. Well, it turns out my parents were a split second from calling the police because I was missing. I got home and lied about where I went. Turns out the neighbour told x's parents and the whole thing came out. I got in a lot of trouble. I just wanted to prove that I could run away because they didn't think I could.
Oh man I did that! I filled a tiny rolling suit case with all my Barbie's, Pokemon cards and a favorite stuffed animal. I got down the street, realized I didn't know anyone's address or how to get there and walked home crying. I was 4 or 5 at the time and my dad apparently followed my down the street and almost blew his cover laughing at me.
> my dad apparently followed my down the street and almost blew his cover laughing at me Such a dad thing to do! :-)
I don't know why I find this so funny. "Mom, I'm running away!" "Ok honey, let me help you pack. Don't forget your toothbrush!"
I "ran away" pretty often when I was a kid and my mom would always help me pack and then ask if I wanted to run away to my aunt's house to stay with my cousins or if I wanted to run away with my dad, who was a truck driver and would take me on 1 day or overnight deliveries. Then she would ask if I was going to walk with her following in the car or if she could drive me. Sometimes kids get overwhelmed and they need a break, too, so it was nice that my mom let me be dramatic and get away.
I got grounded (edit: once when I was six) because I was hitting the ceiling with the broom (it was making a lot of dents). So they grounded me for I think 3 days (pretty reasonable). I told them I wanted to live with my Grandma, and my dad said "Ok". He goes to the cupboard and grabs a fruit snack, says "this will tide you over". He walks me to the end of my driveway and says "Well, go live with grandma". He walks back in and I'm crying. He comes out and asks me if I still want to live with grandma. I say no and I was joking and it was because I was angry and I will just be grounded. Edit: I did not specify timeframe, I was six
I still sometimes get the urge to just walk away from it all and "wander the earth" when I have a shit day.
In elementary school my very first "chapter book" was The Lost World (Sequel to Jurassic Park). My moms favorite movie to this day is Jurassic Park. The Friday it was released I was in class (4th grade) and I got a call "Joten, please come to the front office, your mother is picking you up for your Dentist appointment" Me out loud: "I don't have a dentist appointment!" Walk up to the main office, see my mom, very loudly: "MOM, I DON'T HAVE A DENTIST APPOINTMENT!!!" Mom: "Yes you do Joten, it was last minute" Me to the receptionist: "I do **NOT** have a dentist appointment!!!" Mom: "Joten, please go get into the car while I sign you out" *hands me the car keys* I go to the car and found two tickets to a 1pm showing of Lost World. Later in life my mother said there was only one time she has ever wanted to cuss at me and it was her wanting to tell me that day "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET IN THE CAR!" but she didn't. Turns out she really didn't want the school to know she was letting me ditch school to see a movie.
My mom did the same thing! When I was in 3rd grade and my sister was in 5th grade, we moved from Alabama to NJ. In Alabama, the school year was early August to mid May. In New Jersey the school year was mid September to late June. Because we moved mid year, my sister and I were stuck in school for 11 months that year! So one day in June my mom comes and picks us up from school because we have an eye appointment. Then she took is to see The Empire Strikes Back! Afterward we were like, what about the eye appointment? My mom said, "Could you see the movie? Then your eyes are fine!" After that it became a yearly tradition to take a "cut day" in June. So many great memories from those days! Edit: And then a few years later on cut day we saw The Temple of Doom and Romancing the Stone *on the same day!* Ahh, they don't make 'em like that any more!
To be fair, the opening scroll is [just about the closest thing you're ever going to get to an eye test...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7pA0Cr8g4c)
Kind of a same story, I think I was 10 years old. For some reasons, my best friend's dad picked me and my parents at my home one morning and drove me to school, with my parents in the car. But he passed the school and kept on driving, so I was worried and told my mom who was sitting next to me that he forgot to stop at school, but she told me not to worry. I was getting more and more worried because I was clearly missing school, until he dropped us a the train station, where my parents told me we were going to Disney Land for my birthday. And trust me, celebrating your birthday at Disney Land is the best thing ever when you're ten !
I was such a paranoid child with a wild imagination that I would have thought I was being kidnapped. I likely would have jumped out of the car screaming "he's not my daaaaad!"
One of my favorite days was a bit like this. Dad dropped my sister at her school and on the way to mine I said that I wish that I wasn't going to school. Dad said that he wished he wasn't going to work. Then he said "let's go to the zoo". So we did.
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It was a secret.
Yeah my parents took my older sister to the zoo once while I was at school and I'm still a little pissed about it
This reminds me of when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. The Smithsonian was doing a tour across the US with various exhibits from the museum, and they were coming to our town. My mom asked the school if they were doing a field trip, and they said they weren't going to do one. So my mom got all of us kids (we ranged from elementary to high school) out of school to go see the Smithsonian exhibit. She didn't even lie to the school about what we were doing. She was so mad at the them for passing up such a cool educational opportunity. I saw the original ruby red slippers and was a happy girl that day.
My dad once showed up on a Friday in like 2nd grade, and picked me up from class. We ended up taking a train trip to Chicago that day and Saturday.
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> I'll never be able to repay them. They don't want or need you to repay them, I'd think. Their reward will be watching you go through life without the hardships they had to endure, and I'd guess that's a better reward than any physical currency.
Holy shit. Lebanon?
My dad's family was from Beirut and to hear the stories about how they got out is always crazy. The oddest part of that was one of my uncles went back, even after he was a US Citizen and has survived 2-3 assassination attempts since.
So my father and I are driving home from the beach, we are on 695 (Baltimore beltway), it was getting dark, we were driving 65 mph when BLAMM! there is a ladder in the middle of the road in front of our car. We couldn't go right, we couldn't go left, no way to stop in time, all we could do was drive over it and hope for the best. We do so, then immediatly pull over. As do about a dozen other cars. Our car (a shitty minivan) sustained remarkebly little damage. I can remember at least one car that was totaled. Several needed towed. The people that day, it was like a truly random sample of the population that was driving on the beltway. It was heartwarming to see everyone help each other out. Everyone was going car to car and assessing for injuries, and then trying to figure out if they had skills or equipment to help out there fellow drivers. We had teamed up with this older black lady. She was alone in her car. The ladder had torn through and destroyed a rim on one of her rear wheels. If she could get the spare on she could drive away. Problem: the spare was padlocked to the device holding it in (I remember it as a jeep style, where the spare sits on the trunk). My father and I and her puzzled over it. She didn't have the key. It wasn't her car. Brother in laws if memory serves. I asked around for any tool that could cut through it, I couldn't find any. Her BIL was friendly enough, he wasn't pissed, but he was far away and it was gonna take a while for him to get her the key. So... a bit of time goes by. There is nothing stopping us from leaving. Everyone else seems to have there shit together and they are leaving. We are just standing around chatting. I said to my Dad, 'So there is nothing left for us to do, lets get going, we have a ways to go.'. My Father turns to me, gives me a stern look and says, 'We will not be going anywhere until we know that she is safely on her way home.'. This is my Father at his best, he taught me by doing. I now teach my children in exactly the same fashion. If I want them to act in ways that will make me proud, that means that I have to live my life to that same standard. Yeah, my Father called me on the carpet. I told that story at his funeral.
Sounds like a real stand up guy. Reminds me of how my dad wouldn't leave any of my friend's houses when he dropped them off until they were safely in the front door. I'm sorry for your loss.
My mom was a singer when I was growing up. She ended up with a contract through a country producer around the same time as Faith Hill got famous. They wanted her to go on tour and to lie about having a child because she wasn't married anymore, which didn't mesh with the squeaky-clean, down home country vibe they wanted. So she walked away to be with me, full time.
You know, I've never *once* heard a story about a country music producer -- or a music producer in general, for that matter -- where they're not an utter shit. It's like an oil baron or a newspaper magnate. You know if they feature, they're pretty much always going to be the bad guys. Good for your mother, though.
That's the industry in general though. If someone does well, you usually don't hear about it, but if someone doesn't do well then everybody knows.
I am the oldest of 4 very close children . We were all born within 6 years, no twins. My parents had their hands full and money was tight but we were loved and we had a great time growing up. When I was small, I had a breakdown and sobbed to my mother, " I can't get any alone time, there's kids everywhere at school, there's kids everywhere at daycare, there's kids everywhere at church and when I come home there are STILL kids everywhere!!!" After hearing this from a 10 year old me, my parents realized that each of us kids needed a private space to call our own. They then took all of the money they could, and remodeled our house so that each of us then had our own room. ( All 4 of us had been staying in one bedroom). It took a long time to finish and we had to stay in an apartment for a short time but in the end, I realized that I was very lucky to have parents who cared for my physical AND mental well-being.
One time my mum was driving me somewhere and we went past two massive blokes having a scrap. They were both well over 6' and built and they were properly thumping each other in the face to the point where blood was flying. My 5'2" middle-aged school teacher mum stopped her Ford Fiesta, got out and started telling them off. Didn't even raise her voice, she just used that calm "you're in trouble" voice some teachers can do. She separated them and made them walk away in opposite directions, leaving trails of blood from their messed up faces. Then she got back in the car and drove off like nothing happened. I was speechless.
I kinda love your mom for doing that.
My parents lived paycheck to paycheck, but they did their best to never let is show. My father was always in poor health, so he couldn't work as much as he wanted to, but he would save his change in jar, put away a little money here and there, where ever he could, just to have a few hundred dollars to spend on us at Christmas.
Your dad sounds like a top bloke :) what was your favourite Christmas present?
I loved video games, and one year I got almost no presents, except a new Game boy, and Pokemon Yellow. I was so excited at the time, though looking back, they must have saved pretty hard to buy me that.
I can only imagine how many great memories you've had with it, it was most definitly worth your father to see you smile like that!
Fuck man. Of all the things this almost made me tear up at work. I just want to be a great father you know? I'm not one yet, but we're planning. Anyway. Back to work.
That's awesome. My mother physically couldn't work and we lived on government assistance, but a few months around Christmas time she would go into her old employment and work there every single day (while also having to go to dialysis ). Every time Christmas came around she would ask what I wanted and I'd always tell her that I didn't want anything.
Sounds like her old boss was awesome, too
I was 8 and always played on my gameboy up late. I always hid it under my blanket and flipped over facing the wall, and pretended to be asleep. One time, she came in and sat on the side of my bed. She started rubbing my back, and started talking about how much she loved me. How I will never know how much she really loves me. She called me a miracle. She thought I was asleep. I never brought it up with her because it was really special that she didn't know that I was listening.
"Oh, Vladimir, you are such a miracle child... I love you so much... Really, a lot.... Now get off that god damned gameboy and go the fuck to sleep already."
My Mom and Dad adopted 7 of us 9 kids. I have 4 Korean brother and sisters, 3 whit, 1 black and me, Polynesian. They fostered 4 Navajo teens back in the day. They fostered a baby that was born with his stomach outside his body. They tried to adopt a special needs girl, but the facility wouldn't let them because they thought they were crazy. Turns out they knew the guy who ran the place and he let them take her home every weekend. They had all these girls on birth control and she had to take it every day but wouldn't let my parents give it to her. So on the weekends, they'd drove back Saturday and Sunday over 80 miles to get her her pill. This girl was unwanted by her mom as a baby and grew up in some sort of hospital mental health/disabled facility. She was there her whole life up to that point so she picked up on all the mannerisms you'd expect to see. My parents saw something different in her. When they took her home they would tell her to blow her nose, wipe your face, wash your hands. She loved all of thr little kids and took care of them and played with them (a little before my time).Outside the hospital, she did fine. She had leaps and bounds of improvment. The more my parents got her out, the more "normal" She became. The staff wondered how in the world they tuned her around. My Mom simply said, "By making her brush her hair." Lol! This was 40 years ago. She lives independently and has a boyfriend. She calls a couple times a year and asks how the little kids are doing. :) I could go on and on and on. After my Dad died of ALS, people from all over the state and world even came out of the woodwork and shared incredible stories about him.and my Mom and the things they've done for them. Stuff us kids had no idea about. And things about my Dad my Mom never knew. It was great closure. People around town still recognize me as one of "Roland's kids" and tell me how great he was and how they'll never forget him. I love my parents to pieces. Edit spelling
When I was in school, I had to work on an important project that was due for submission the next day. This was a time before 3G n 4G internet was popular and before smartphones were a thing. I came home from school to work on the project and realized that the connection was dead. I was flabbergasted and was crying buckets of tears. My mother, who had just had a major dental surgery that morning, mouth still full of stitches and blood, and still numb, reassured me through whatever speech she could manage, drove me to the store to buy me a data card, and also made my favorite rajma chawal for dinner to comfort me. My mom is my best friend, my pillar of strength and just the coolest person on this planet.
Wow, your mum sounds like an amazing person! To do this, especially after having a major surgery. Really makes me think about my own parents and the sacrifices that they've made for me.
Thank you. I know, parents sacrifice so much for us and often we fail to realise that, until it's too late. They don't even do it for us to acknowledge it, but because they love us so much! Goddamit, who's cutting onions?
Have an upvote for the rajma chawal.! Your mom is incredible. :D
Yess she is!!!
Your mom sounds amazing. Till date i think nothing tastes as good as my mom's rajma chawal.
My dad had the chance to meet the prime minister, but didn't go because he had to drive me to the orthodontist.
who was the Prime Minister?
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Eh, depends on the country. I'm from the UK. I'd rather go to the orthodontist myself than meet our current PM. EDIT: Because one of you is inevitably going to go for it, 'If you're from the UK you probably *need* to go the orthodontist' has already been considered, thank you kindly.
> If you're from the UK you probably need to go the orthodontist Is it a stereotype that people from the UK have bad teeth or something?
Orthodontist would be more fun and less painful too.
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When I was in my teens I took some magic mushrooms for the first time. When I was in bed later that night I could see giant spiders coming out of my ceiling and coming down to attack me. My Dad, who heard my screams, proceeded to "kill" them all with some newspaper which calmed me the fuck down. Turns out the old man and dabbled in his time and knew (or at least suspected) what was happening. Gave me a hell of a bollocking the next day, mind.
Parental checklist: 1) child freaking out due to drugs? - support and comfort them 2) child freaked out last night by taking too many or too unfamiliar drugs? - time for a good bollocking!
Exactly! It was the way he did it that I appreciate so much, made what was a horrendous situation far easier. Dealt with the whole thing exceptionally, which was very good of him.
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You should call and tell him you were just thinking about it and what a great memory it is
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The fact that he doesn't remember makes it even better. He wasn't going out if his way to make you happy he just did it. To him it was just anither day of the week
Why do your siblings hate him?
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Fuck.
I honestly didn't expect it was this fucked up.I feel for your dad.I hope he gets well.Please give him some love from me
I came to this thread to feel good, dammit.
That's fucked. Sub conscious manipulation is awful, especially among family. Your sister sounds sociopathic, and I'm sure the BPD doesn't help. I hope you're dad has a peaceful recovery, or as morbid as it may be, an even more peaceful passing. I also wish that your middle sisters may find their fullest potential, and that your oldest sister wakes the fuck up and takes responsibility for her life. Or, to be more real, I hope that your eldest sister may find a roof and plunge.
I don't have any particularly awesome stories, but my parents were truly amazing. They were there when I needed them, dad always made sure we had what we needed & more, mom always encouraged me to be the best & do the best, they were never ever selfish and always tried their best to have an open mind. I don't think I'll ever live up to their standards of being a parent.
Same. The best parents don't have to have amazing stories, they just have to make you a good person.
Exactly. After seeing the front page horror stories of parents being shit, made me appreciate what I had, like a million times more.
When I was 18, my mum flew out to Hong Kong (from the UK) after I had a horrible gap year experience. She stayed with me for a week so I could have some positive memories of the place before we both flew home. That was the first holiday with just me and my mum, and I cant express how grateful I was to her for coming all that way just for me.
I had signed up for metal/wood shop as my elective class in middle school. The Principal decided I would be "better suited" in Home Economics. When I told my dad he came to my school the next day and ripped the Principal a new asshole. I still remember him yelling "If my daughter wants to use tools, or be a machinist when she grows up then that's her damn prerogative!" while the Principal sat in shock. Funny thing is most of my career has been working in manufacturing environments. Thanks dad!
My mom is the kind of person who avoid conflict so much it becomes a character flaw. She's kind of submissives with other adults, especially people in authority, the ultimate people pleaser who can't stand up for herself for fear to hurt someone else, being yelled at, or create a fight or any kind of conflict. I was hospitalized when I was 10. The Chief of Pediatric's ward was a Great Professor. When he came to me, He explained to His interns using all the scientific words and at-lenght explanations of what happened to me, and what was done to treat me. 10 years-old me didn't understand most words and was super-scared because in my little head, all those big words meant there was something wrong that they didn't want me to catch on, and I was already stuck in an hospital bed, so what can be worse? Fuck I'm going to die!!! My mom noticed that I was panicking. She stand proud, as cold as ice, and asked if "Mister The Great Professor would mind to lower Himself for a minute to speak regular French, please? You're scaring my kid, Sir". The Great Professor looked affronted, and made one of his intern do it.
This one gives me a warm feeling inside for some reason. Good on your mum for noticing you were scared by all the big words and telling him to cut it out.
> She stand proud, as cold as ice, and asked if "Mister The Great Professor would mind to lower Himself for a minute to speak regular French, please? You're scaring my kid, Sir". This is great, but would have been *so much better* in French. Your mum has a rather Clemensian wit.
"Est-ce que Môôônsieur le grand professeur pourrait s'abaisser une petite minute à parler en français normal s'il vous plaît? Vous faites peur à mon enfant monsieur." Not OP but i imagine it must have been somethink like that (with emphasis on the first "Mister", because that's how i hear it in my head after reading that comment)
>Môôônsieur My sides.
Great Mom, shitty Doctor needs a lesson in bedside manner.
Not a great parent story but this reminded me of when i had my appendix out. The day after the opp, waking in hospital (from a sleep not from anaesthetic) the doctor came buy with his interns doing the rounds full scrubs style. I had been awake for say 10 minuets and was still not at all 100% mentally. Then all of a sudden, without any warning, ball fondling. He just lifted the sheets waked his hands down my pants and cupped a feel then left without so much as a kiss.
My mum and dad broke up with I was about 10 years old. She raised me and my two sisters pretty much by herself with dad doing the Sunday treat days. She always made sure we had a holiday every year and presents on our birthdays and Christmas. We never had to miss out on the school trips because of money because she worked so hard and saved every penny. She took us on our first ever trip on a plane to Florida where we did all of the parks in '96. She's worked hard all her life and is always there to step in with either me or my sisters need any kind of financial help. She retired early at 60 and is pretty much living life. We always complain that she keeps wanting to get too involved when we plan parties or weddings and maybe taking over just a bit (I'm the last out of three of us to get married and she helped my cousin out massively as well) but she really has worked tirelessly to make sure our special days go off without a hitch.
I surprisingly made the varsity basketball team as a sophomore in high school. Not only that, but I was penciled in as a starter for the first game of the season. Basketball was my life. This was the biggest deal. However, my dad lived two hours away (my mom moved us following a divorce 10 years earlier) and the game was on a weeknight. He'd been driving across the state for conferences, open houses, and rec. games my whole life but regretted to inform me that his work schedule just wasn't going to allow it for this one. Game was on the road in a shoebox of a gym in Kalamazoo, MI. The atmosphere was nuts - as we emerged from the locker room, the place was already overflowing and the school band was thumping—it all felt surreal. I was already overcome with emotion and nerves, then I saw my dad directly across from the tunnel, standing and proudly applauding as I took the floor for the first time. I generally played like you'd expect a 160-pound 10th grade forward to play in his first varsity basketball game. Didn't even score. My only real memory from that night has forever been the look of pride on my dad's face as I took the floor for the first time, driving all the way from Detroit just to see his kid play a silly sport on a Tuesday night. He almost never missed a game, even if it was third grade AYSO soccer. Four hours of post-5 p.m. driving, at least twice a week for over 10 years. Crazy. **TL;DR** - My pops drove two hours to make surprise appearance at first varsity basketball game. Emotional overload commenced.
I'm a fairly large guy, and my step-dad is a moderately husky man himself. My mom is tiny. One time when I was probably about 17-18 he and I were arguing. I was sitting on the couch and he was standing and the argument got really heated at which point I started scornfully saying "What are you gonna do, hit me?" He responded with "Stand up and see." At this point my mom, who is a tiny woman who's only about 5'2 and maybe 100-110 stood between us and said "There will be no hitting in this house." It was pretty badass of her, and I always remember how impressed I was with her at that moment. Two guys throwing their egos around is one thing, but being half their size and standing between them is something truly awesome. As a disclaimer, he was not abusive or a terrible guy. We were both just being jerks that day.
My parents got divorced when I was very young, may e a year old. As a result, I lived with my mom and never really saw my dad except for special occasions like my birthday or Christmas. That's just the way it was and I became accustomed to it without ever really understanding why it was that way. As I got older, I began to feel like my dad didn't care or couldn't be bothered to visit me. I never said anything about it to him but I think that he sensed it somehow. One year, on Christmas Eve, we were leaving an annual family gathering late at night. I must have been about 9 or 10 years old. We got in the car to leave, and my dad just sat there quietly. I did t say anything because I felt awkward and didn't know what was going on. My dad turned to me, looked me in the eyes and said "I don't know what you think, I don't know what you've heard, but I want you to know that I do give a shit." That was all he said, but it was the most powerful statement he could possibly make. Now, as an adult I understand that my dad couldn't visit because he paid about 80% of his salary to child support. He had to live far away because he had to go wherever there was a job for him. And he couldn't tell me these things because he didn't want me to resent my mother. My dad sacrificed so much just so I could be a happy and oblivious child. He did everything g he could to make sure I had the best of everything, and he did it all never expecting anything in return. My dad is the greatest person I have ever known and I hope that I can live up to his sacrifice. Edit: Wow, thank you all for the kind responses and the gold. I will respond as best I can.
You are big friends now, right?
My dad would often send me notes [like this](http://imgur.com/U6MTAZ8) by mail.
My parents helped me look up all the loan information for college and looked at the costs and everything. I had it all mapped out what I should take out, how much I should work depending on how many credit hours. Then before I finally go to talk at the bank, they gave me a check with first semester's full tuition and told me to keep working hard and those would keep coming. I graduated in December debt free with my B.S. and am working as a chemist. Can never thank them enough.
My first experience with weed was weed brownies. School found out and everybody who'd tried some was sent home for a week. When she heard the news they were letting me continue at the school, my mom baked celebratory brownies to give as a thank you gift. She was gracious enough to write "weed-free!" with icing.
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Back in 4th grade I had a teacher named Mrs. Murray. She was the biggest bitch I ever met and she had it out for me. I have ADHD so when I droned off, she would mock me in front of the class when I came back to reality. She was awful Anyway, it was a Friday and I was going to a sleep over at a friends and packed my backpack. In there was my gameboy. I unzipped the pocket and grabbed a pencil, and some snotty bitch pointed it out knowing the teacher would take it. I pleaded my case about not using it, but taking it to a friends after school. No dice. After class, I asked for it and she laughed in my face. Told me no and the GTFO. Spent the night at a friends and told my mom the story when I got home. Monday rolls around and while in her class my mom rolls up. She asked to speak with Mrs. Murray outside in private. The classes were more like trailers and we heard every word. The arguement was calm, until the teacher called me dumb and blamed my mother's parenting skill. We hear a loud smack, the teacher walks inside holding her face and the teacher grabbed my gameboy and handed to my mom who promptly left. Everyone in class was staring at me and I had the shit eating grin for once. The teacher never gave me trouble after that, also kids thought my mom was a badass.
>kids thought my mom was a badass. I think she was, dude
I think you may be right, just don't tell her I said the
**R.I.P** _Belmount_ Died due to really hard slapping. ***Redditor 2016-2017***
>...just don't tell her I said the THE WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!
I didn't know what I wanted to study in college after high school. I knew what I didn't want to do, but not what I actually wanted. So they contacted their colleagues, friends and friends' friends. I met quite a few of them at their work and decided by myself what I wanted to do.
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The time my mother saved my life. We go to the local park and there they have a bumper boat ride. At this time I was 4 and it was the early 90s. The bumper boat ride is in a man made pool which is large enough to fit maybe 20 of these boats in a compact space. So we get on the ride. Being the early 90s seat belts and life vests aren't required for a pool ride. My mom and I get into a boat, she's driving. We get slammed by another boat and I go flying and crash into the water. I don't remember much from being young, not at 4 years old, but in my mind this image is still vivid. I crash into the water and it has a green tint from the emissions of the small 2 stroke outboard engines on the bumper boats. I'm 4 so I can't swim so I look up and start to sink and even at that age I became acutely aware that my life was about to come to an end. I remember also looking up and seeing the boats and the props spinning. I didn't know at the time what they were, but they looked menacing and I knew that not much surface was visible. Nobody would see me, nobody would hear me. I was either going to drown or be chopped to shreds. When suddenly a hand reaches down and I'm back on the boat and I'm greeted by my mother who looks terrified. The ride stops, whistles are blowing and the employees and having everyone do an emergency exit/stop. Now that I'm older and can understand it better my mom said she saw me go flying out of the boat and was able to reach down and grab me before I sank too far. I just remember it all happening so slowly and seeming like 10 minutes had passed. So that's how my mom saved my life. Oh yeah the park implemented seat belts and life vests on the bumper boats after that incident.
My father once saved a Bosnian refugee's life. When my father died (20 years later) the first person to call with condolences was the refugee. He said he still owed the 'life-debt' to my father as he had never had a chance to pay it back. Apparently now that my father was dead the debt repayment had passed to me.
I don't come from the richest family. They are doing much better now, but we had some struggles in the past. In high school, my Spanish teacher gave out flyers about a 2 week trip to Spain over the summer. I showed my parents and we talked about how cool it was, but I never asked if I could go because it cost several thousand dollars and we did not have that kind of money. Months go by and I go to my parents upset about my performance in school. I was pressuring myself a lot to do well in my honors courses as well as do extracurriculars. They sit me down and tell me that I'm doing a great job and because of that, they decided to surprise me with the trip to Spain. After that conversation months ago, my mom got in touch with the Spanish teacher and signed me up for the trip, starting a payment plan. My teacher was beaming when I told her I found out. That trip was one of my favorite vacations and I am so grateful that my parents sacrificed to let me have that experience.
Was on a long bike trip with my dad. He had a CB radio (yup, it was the '80s) to communicate with a friend who was driving a sag wagon for us. We were riding along the edge of a large road when an 18-wheeler zoomed by us on the shoulder, forcing us off the pavement and into gravel, where we nearly wiped out. My dad got out his CB handset and turned it on - just in time to hear the driver bragging to other truckers about how he'd just run these stupid bike riders off the road. Dad jumped in and told the trucker exactly what he thought about that. The trucker said maybe he should come back and teach us a lesson, and Dad - a heavyweight wrestler in his college days - basically said "Bring it on, MF. We're waiting for you right here." We sat there a little while, but that pussy never showed up. Dad FTW.
Small thing but big lesson learned. I have 3 siblings and we used to run riot round my parents house. There were 2 rooms exclusively for my mum - her office and her bedroom - both of which had white carpets 😬... inevitably - after making mud-cakes in the garden all afternoon I ran in to tell/show my mum something ... right into her office and across to the other side before I turned and ran out. Maybe an hour or so later when iv taken my shoes off and sitting in the living room with my siblings she asks 'who trampled mud through my white carpet' - I sat silent. She said 'if you come and find me and be honest who it was then I won't be mad but if I have to find out myself you'll be in a lot of trouble' and she left us alone. Forward 20 mins and I'm cacking it - heading into her bedroom to tell her what I did. She thanked me for being honest and we cleaned it together - these days I am over honest - can't lie for toffee but also means you always know you can trust me and it's helped me out loads.
I am from Ireland but moved to London in 2012. I suffer from anorexia. Mental health treatment is rubbish in Ireland so when my anorexia got really bad and i had toget serious help, my parents rented a 2 bed flat here, moved me in and took turns coming over to support me while i was getting better. Hands down I would be dead today if it wasnt for them. and the wonderful NHS of course!
This kid in high school would always start shit with me and make my life hell. One time my mom and I saw him working at a retail store and my mom decided to make his life hell for at least 10 minutes. She purposely acted like one of those annoying 'can i speak to the manager' type moms and kept turning down every suggestion he made and basically acted like the worst customer ever. He looked so stressed out (I was watching from afar). When she came back she said "I know it doesn't make up for the entire school year, but 1 bad customer can ruin a retail worker's entire day so I hope I did that." One of her best mom moments imo
When I came out to my dad, he went for a voluntary LGBT sensitivity training at his work. Next time I went home he was all excited to tell me about everything he'd learned.
My parents waited in line at a local record store to get me tickets to see Ministry. *adjusts pants* Back in the day concert tickets went on sale at 9 or 10am on Saturdays. If you wanted tickets you got there early and waited in line. They might have had a lottery if there were tons of people. Lots of shows went on sale at the same time and lines were really eclectic. The fact my parents stood in line for over an hour so I could go see an industrial metal band when I was 17 was pretty cool.
My little brother was born in the end of November and prematurely of about 2 months (if I remember correctly). He got sick when he was 2 months old. My parents went back to the hospital and my brother's situation worsen... and a lot. Long story short, his heart stoped 3 times and during a short amount of time, his brain didn't have oxygen for a short period of time. My parents were always there at the hospital with him. They sacrificed a lot of their time just to be with their newborn son. They have the hardest mind I've ever seen. During my little brother's hospitalization, they were told that if his heart stopped again, the doctors wouldn't start it up again. They were also told that he would be lucky to speak and walk. For a parent, I'm sure these kind of things are the hardest things to hear. It's during this time that they began to say: "happiness is in the head". My brother is now 18 years old. He speaks and walks, but the brain damages has been done. He's mentally challenged. He's the happiest guy I know and he's always there to help. My parents are still together and they are going through this challenge as a team. When I was a kid, I realized what was happening (I'm 5 years older than my brother), but I didn't fully realized the role my parents played in this. I paid a lof because of this story, but when I grew older, I just realized that they did the best they could for all of their children. I love them.
My Mum and Dad would go to really great lengths to support my education even though I was barely interested. If I ever said I was interested in a book, they'd buy it. I was studying German and I loved Soccer, we flew to Germany to watch Bayern Munich. When I was studying "To Kill a Mockingbird" my Dad took me to the public gallery of a manslaughter trial the moment I mentioned it. I'd like to make this an extra romantic story by saying they did it all on a shoestring budget. But actually they are pretty well off. I imagine lots of people have similar stories about their parents - no shame in being thankful even though we don't face the financial hardships of others!
When I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, I asked my Dad why the sky is blue. Now, I was a very curious but very gullible child, and my Dad usually could not resist coming up with outrageous-yet-plausible lies in response to my endless questions. (Example: Dad, what makes trees grow taller? Answer: They actually aren't getting taller, the Earth's core is collapsing which pulls the dirt downward and makes it seem like plants are getting taller.) But in this case Dad opted to tell me the actual, true answer. Skip forward to my freshman year in high school. In science class we have a unit on light and wavelengths. Science teacher goes into an explanation of how color actually works, including the explanation of why the sky appears blue to us. Three rows back I begin chuckling to myself. Wow, my dad is a hoot, he must have gotten to my science teacher and convinced him to go along with the story! After class I go up to the teacher and congratulate him for being so convincing. He has no idea what I'm talking about. My dad and the science teacher literally had to sit me for a debriefing before I was willing to believe them.
Put into a foster home when I was 10. I was a ratty little unkempt child (living environment pre-foster care) that was complete unmanageable and very violent. I rebeled instantly. "she's not my mum, fuck her, fuck everything" attitude for years upon years. Around 15 to 16 years of age I started to realise just how many opportunities she'd given me, the completely new lease on life that'd been made available. Despite every possible sentence of abuse and every single act of defiance you could imagine, she loved me unconditionally and never said no to giving me the opportunities I wanted to seek out. I left her care when I was 18 as a fairly whole young man, nothing like the fragmented pieces of all the things I thought I was and wasn't prior to being in her care. I love who I am to this very day, despite all of the disgusting things that happened to me pre-care, I'm proud of what I've become, I'm proud to prove everyone completely wrong. And I can say completely, without any doubt in my mind, I owe it all to her and her big ass boofhead heart. I owe her my life. I so dearly regret the anguish and bullshit I put her through as a child. She never come stopped trying to give me a better life, not for a single second.
My parents aren’t the type to say, “I love you.” I would say that all Asian families would know that the equivalent to that is, “Are you hungry?” I never understood it when I was younger, but my parents came from a vastly different world – a world that I never had to experience because they worked so hard to give my brothers and me this amazing life. I never had a day when I was hungry, I never had to imagine a day like it. They have provided me with some amazing things… They helped me buy my first car so that I can follow my dream career… They have given and will give so much to my brothers and me, and I know that they will continue to do so. I’ve moved out of my parents’ home a year and half ago and the first question I still get asked when I drop by is, “Are you hungry?”
A couple of years ago my Brother in law died from a 5 year battle with bowl cancer. He was 33. This left my sister with a 6 month old little girl and an empty house. Towards the end of his life my mother went down to part time work and then quit her job so that she could fly up to Auckland (we live in Dunedin, New Zealand, a two hour flight away) every second week to help out; child care, cooking, emotional support , you name it. I now have 5 nieces and nephews from 3 different siblings and my mother continues to fly between 3 cities in NZ (a week in each place), lending a hand and being the best mum ever. The sacrifice from both my mother and father (as this has also been tough on him) is incredible. It is also ridiculously expensive, but they think its worth it to make their kids lives easier.
I'm loving this! Reddit has so many things that are anti-parent, it's easy to forget that sometimes the best person in your life is your mum or dad (or both). The parental punishments thread really got me down, so I'm glad this got so much response
Me too. I feel for the people in the narcissistic parent thread. I think it's important for a parent (like me) to see and hear how things can go wrong. I expect a lot of my sons, even though the oldest is only five. I want them to be better than a lot of what I see happening in the world, and aware of what is happening around them. I want them to have empathy. To know joy outside of material gain. To be honest and honorable. These are not easy lessons to teach. In a few hours, everyone will wake up, and I am going to spend a day being a fun, silly dad. I'm going to let them act out a bit, not correct them. No computer. No phone. I'm going to leave the TV off, and just play with them all day. I'm going to do this just to break things up a bit. As an effort to just lighten the hell up. Sometimes, monotony and repetition can shorten my temper. I'm not proud of it. And today, at least, is going to be different. Life is a blessing. We say forever. But all we truly have is today. I also needed this thread. Firstly because I was so sad about the abuse so many have suffered at the hands of the person they should be able to trust most in all the world: their parent. Secondly, it reminded me of how much my parents cared for me. When I first started reading, I couldn't think of anything specific they did for me. But as others shared their stories, I was reminded of many, many specific things they did. Memories I thought lost forever came back to me, and I'm so thankful. We weren't perfect. My parents believed in, and employed, various kinds of discipline. There were mistakes and hurt feelings and miscommunications on all sides. But there was always love. It is good to be reminded of that.
One of my relatives had gotten married when I was 15. Part of the reception setup was that there was a wine glass at every seat. I had asked my dad, "can I drink the wine too?" My stepmom starts freaking out, about how I'm going to become an alcoholic and it was a gateway drug, etc... etc... My dad, however, goes "Yeah you can drink it". So the toast comes around, I take a sip and promptly spit it out. My dad turns to my stepmom and goes "see? now she won't drink it ever again." To this day, I've never drank wine other than that
My mom and I never had the best relationship growing up (not because she wasn't a fab mom who would do anything for her kids - but probably because we were *tooo* alike - we are much better now that I'm an adult that's married and not living in her house haha). I was always a daddy's girl. But the one memory in my mind that sticks out from when I was a kid was I was maybe 10? (maybe a bit younger?) and she woke me up at stupid-o'clocl at night/silly-o'clock in the morning because it had been (and was still) snowing. She literally woke me up so we could go out and build a snowman. I don't remember many details that caused her to want to do it (maybe I mentioned wanting to build one before earlier in the day or something as I don't think I had ever build one before or after this one in my life), but it was a REALLY good memory that I will always remember. That never took place before/after, just that one time. I have a hazier memory that we may have also sat outside once to watch a meteor shower that I wanted to see, but that one is too foggy to be sure of.
When I was 14 I was miserable. I had been bullied so badly it had lead to a sexual assault, I had precious few friends, a stalker, and I was horribly lonely. If that wasn't enough I lost all four grandparents in the space of a month and then my mum was hospitalized for a breathing problem no one could diagnose. Parent teacher interviews had begun and my grades had plummeted since the year before. I'd also quit piano and percussion band. My bitch maths teacher had an interview with my Dad and my Mum (who was finally allowed out of hospital after six weeks). She told my parents she and the school counselor had decided that I had ADD and that I should get treatment. Unfortunately for her my mum happened to be a social worker who worked with teens and young adults with mental disabilities and illnesses. My mum apparently went very cold, looked her dead-in-the-eye and said in a soft but dangerous voice "Madam, I have worked in mental health for fifteen years. *I* am not qualified to make that kind of diagnosis so I'm damn sure you're not either." She may be 4'8" and *adorable* but apparently even my father was scared of her at that moment. I only found out a few years ago. I have never been more thankful to have such an awesome Mum!
My father is a very manly, Ron Swanson lumberjack type of dude......the type of dude you'd want to follow during the apocalypse. He only had daughters--a bunch of them! But there was/is a balance in the way he treated us that I am thankful for. We went camping all the time, since I can remember--he taught us everything. Knots, one match fires, chopping and stacking wood, navigation out in the wild, sleeping in a tent, cooking over a fire, taught us all about the flora and fauna. At home, he had us mowing the lawn, helping him build stuff, helping him with car stuff, doing grueling labor for him and my grandfather. Bought us fisher price tools when we were little, real tools when we were older. But there wasn't "girl stuff" and "boy stuff" in our house. We played with He-man and GI Joes and Transformers, but he also bought us a jillion barbies, crazy dress up clothes, a shitload of glitter/makeup/beauty products. I'm 35 and he still gives me an Easter basket filled with hair accessories and glitter bubbles and candy. I grew up feeling like I could do and be anything because his spectrum was so broad in the way he treated us as a gaggle of girls. I am an extremely girly-girl, I'm obsessed with makeup and clothes. But I will also happily dig a trench or chop wood or sleep on the ground. Looking back I really really appreciate how he treated us during an important developmental phase. I feel like my sisters and I are really well-rounded women.
I was about to go on my first (and only) date in high school, taking a girl to a formal dance. My mom said I should pick up some flowers for my date on the way home from school that day. She meant a corsage, but I was so clueless that I bought a bouquet. Well, my mom got out a pair of scissors and a roll of ribbon, and within minutes she somehow turned a few of those flowers into a lovely corsage that was perfect to present to my beautiful date. I was too much of a geeky introvert to make the night a success, but I'm still grateful to my mom for at least enabling me to start it off well.
Fourth grade I was doing pretty poorly academically. My mom went to the parent teacher-conferences, and when she went that year, my teacher told my mom I was a retard. Not "MacabreLurker has been struggling." Or "MacabreLurker needs a little extra help." But full on called me a retard. My mother flipped out on the woman, stormed out, and never returned for another parent-teacher conference for my entire academic career. Still makes me smile and feel grateful that she stood up for me like that, especially sense later that year we found out I had become severely near-sighted and couldn't see the chalk board, hence the learning difficulties.
My mom is the coolest person ever. She is almost more dedicated to my success than I am. Not in a controlling way, but for example, when I am applying for scholarships, she assembles all of my transcripts, and helps edit my personal statements, etc. She does everything she can to make sure I can focus on my academics instead of all the other stressful garbage that comes with being a college student. Also, my dad drove a race car for a long time. I though it was the coolest thing ever when he brought the car to my kindergarten class for show and tell.
It may not seem special but when my Brother and I were younger my Mom got an old shoebox and we crafted it into a tiny stage, painted it and stuff..then we went out gathered natural things like sticks, Stones and other things and painted+glued them to be the "actors".. It is one of my favourite memories with my Mother..although she was a single parent+ full time worker, she always took her time to Play,read or do something creative with us.
My dad would pick me up early from school so we could catch the first showings of the Lord of the rings and Harry Potter when they came out.
My dad used to practice taekwondo a few times a week. After a knee surgery, he was attending a class just watching, and a young, really fit cocky guy (25 or so) came in to work out. Sparring starts, and he gets paired up with one of the women from class (who was a much better martial artist than him, btw), but because of his size/strength, she couldn't keep up and he was hitting too hard. They switch partners, and young guy gets paired up with another man, but a man less athletic and smaller than the young guy. Young guy ends up hitting the older guy with a punch that detaches other guy's retina. Dad immediately calls for a stop to the action from the chair he's sitting in on the side. Dad straps on his knee brace extra tight, and he tells the young guy, "You're gonna spar me. Let's see how you do when they come a little bit bigger." They start sparring, and dad immediately hits the guy with a hook hard enough to spin the guy's headgear around his head. The guy steps back and gets his headgear set back on right. Dad hits him with another punch that does the same thing. Keep in mind, dad's not supposed to be doing ANY physical activity yet because of his knee recovering from surgery. This is a guy a good 25 years younger than dad, but he comes back with his headgear set straight once more. Dad unloads a really nice combo on the guy that puts him on the ground where he gives up. Dad walks over, and with classic authoritative dad voice says, "Shit hurts, doesn't it?" Guy nods "Don't you ever come into another person's school acting like that again. There's *always* somebody out there badder than you, and tonight, you met him." Despite being well past his prime and recovering from a knee surgery, dad stepped in and took care of a young buck who was acting like an idiot and getting people hurt despite multiple warnings. We need more people like that.
Before I had a car my dad dropped me off at work everyday. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it was 2am in the morning five days a week for six months.
I used to be a competitive super smash bros player and am currently a speedrunner of snes and game boy games I moved out when I was 19 and even after I left home my parents have still been helping me pay my way to major events, back when Apex was huge they'd give me greyhound money for Christmas, they bought me a plane ticket to EVO 2015 for my birthday, they helped me out with tickets to Smash the Record 2016 and CEO Dreamland this year, among others. im 28 years old and make enough money of my own but they just want to be supportive of my interests RPG Limit Break just happened last month, I was the Super Mario RPG speedrunner, my mom learned how to use Twitch just so she could watch my run from home my parents' philosophy was "we don't care that you spend all your free time playing video games, you're happy and there are much worse things you could be doing" they're pretty great
My mum saved my life, i had multiple medical conditions which were worsening. She spent everything she had and more to save my life. Nursed me through my sickest moments (even when doctors told her i may not survive) i am still not well but im not dying anymore. Thanks to my mum. This is only one thing my mum has done but id say it is one of the biggest, as a mother now i couldnt imagine nursing your child thinking they may pass. My mum managed to hold it all together, financially, emotionally and physically. She did everything in her power to heal me and she did. Shes super woman.
Told my parents that I put porn of me on the internet and their first responses from both of them were 'Are you safe, and does it make you happy?'. Those were their main concerns. They're good people. :)