The Curse of Becoming Your Parents
A mother’s worst curse is to say “I hope you have a kid just like you someday.” But that isn’t the real curse. The true damnation should be “I hope you have a kid someday that will drive you to do the things you laughed at me for saying.”
As kids growing up, my younger brother and I were often at each other’s throats. While we’re incredibly close now, I wonder how my parents survived the hurricane that preceded us when we were on a tear. My father would scrunch up his face, which often turned red in the process, make the universal sports sign for time out and yell, “I will not be a referee!”
My father was not the yelling kind. We knew we were in serious trouble the quieter he got. When he became so riled up he actually yelled, we found it absolutely hysterical. We actually mocked the man! This disrespectful and immature behavior lasted until we had children ourselves. And then the curse reared its ugly head.
One day, I couldn’t take the nonstop wrestling, jumping, karate chopping and general tomfoolery. That’s right. I said tomfoolery. The steam built up between my ears and finally blew out through my ear drums like an old Tom & Jerry cartoon. Suddenly I was shrieking, “I will not be a referee,” while making a T with my hands. The only thing missing was a silver whistle hanging from my neck. It was official. I had become my father.
Oh. But it didn’t stop there. My monkeys looked at me as if I’d blown a gasket and found it unbelievably freaking funny. I felt like I had run smack dab into the middle of a metal pole. All of the times I had unabashedly laughed at my dad came rushing back to me. The curse was complete.
As adults, we have the ability to choose how we act. But that damn curse is sometimes just too strong to break.
EVOLVE: What do you do that your parents did and wish you could stop?
I hear my mom sending words through my mouth everyday.
I have the world’s greatest parents. I love them so completely I can hardly put it into words. That said, I hear stuff that they said (that my sisters and I used to laugh about) coming out of my mouth every day. Yes, I’ve become my mother. Example: years ago my sister and I were tasked with scrubbing the bathroom. We did a half-a$$ed job on the toilet. I mean, hey, we were pre-teen girls and we had to scrub the toilet. Eeeewww! My mom came in and said, “This is not clean, I can still SEE the germs.” She was livid that we’d been in there a long time and hadn’t really completed the task. As soon as she left, our suppressed giggles burst free and we laughed and laughed about her microscopic eyes that were capable of SEEING germs. We still joke about this 20 years later. Yep, I told my 13- and 14-year-old girls the SAME THING last week under similar circumstances! Ugh!
I have had the curse put on me. I am expecting its full curse to show itself when the girls are teenagers! The one thing I find myself saying is “Because I said so!” I hate that!
I can very much relate to the feeling of being a Referee, but girl style. You would think that at 13 and 10 yrs. old things would be calming down a bit, but no, no it is not. I find myself saying the strangest things at them. Great post!
Hmm, I think that I am sometimes guilt-trip like my dad, hehe!
Jenna