What My Parents Did Right

I have always thought about what my parents did wrong until one night while we were walking, Mitchell told me he had heard “What My Parents Did Right” as a title of a book and how it had changed his thinking. I have to admit that it has changed mine as well. My dad died December 21, 2011, and so I have had that on my mind this month. As a tribute to him, I am going to talk about some of the things that my parents did right. I can honestly say I was a “daddy’s girl.” My mother was the one to be feared. When she got mad at me, her eyes would get as big as saucers. Well, at least in my perspective they did. I can remember when I was in the first grade my mother told me to not get on the merry-go-round. Well, she shouldn’t have said that because I just had to try that. I guess I didn’t hold on properly and I was “skinned” all over my arms and legs. My mother worked second shift and my dad worked first shift, so he was the one at home when I got there. I told him what I had done and he doctored all of my cuts and scratches. I was terrified what my mother would do since I had disobeyed her. I was awake when she came home and I remember she was angry when my dad told her what had happened. My dad told her that she shouldn’t say anything because he was sure that I had learned my lesson. Yes, my daddy always took up for me. He would go to town on Saturday and would always bring me back a book. I loved mysteries even back then and he would bring me a Nancy Drew mystery or some other kind he thought I would like. The last doll I ever got was a Terri Lee doll and I received a magazine with her. It had a “pen pal” page and as a result, I had a lot of pen pals. I had as many as 50 pen pals and I can remember my dad telling me that I would have to give most of them up because stamps had gone up to 3 cents. Now, I’m really telling my age. I had leg aches a lot and my dad would rub my legs with alcohol. I think now they say that’s a bad thing to do, but it sure relieved my leg aches. He would also do some of my “chores” when I got sick. I know it sounds like I’m not saying good things about my mother, so I need to change this to what my mother did right. My mother taught me to cook, sew, and clean house. She was very picky and demanding, but now that I look back, this is a good thing that she taught me. My mother was a hard worker and she demanded the same out of me, and yes, also my dad. My mother never liked desserts, but my dad and I did. My specialty in cooking became desserts and especially anything chocolate. My dad’s favorite was chocolate chiffon pie. My dad said he could spread chocolate syrup on a piece of white bread and be happy. What did my parents do right? They must have done a lot of things right because I think I turned out to be a good, moral person. Think about what your parents did right. We focus on too many of the bad things. DR 12/10/12