The best thing your parents ever said

[Ptah]

They often said "good thinking, son."

[Aristus]

1. When I got my sergeant's stripes, my Dad said:

"You're a born leader, and you're going to make a good NCO."

And as I had been predicting for years, it did not kill him to say something nice to me...

[Texasgal]

2. You are more creative

than I'll ever be. Said by Mom while I was in college.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

3. Well...

My father at College graduation = "Guess your happy, you proved me wrong." (Yes that's the best)

My Mother at College graduation= "I never expected anything less!"

[Sweet Freedom]

4. Leading up to my dvorce, my mom once told me

she would support me no matter what my decision was even though she could not stand my husband. It was so great to hear her say that and know that someone loved me and was there for me no matter what.

[MiddleFingerMom]

5. MiddleFingerMomMom died at the age of 81 the day after 9/11/2001. A year or so before that...

..
.
... just before she slipped into the completely uncommunicative endstage
of Alzheimer's, she swore me to secrecy and told me that, though I had
been the child who had given her the most trouble (true -- not a bad
boy, but VERY disobedient and willful), I had also been her favorite.
.
She also asked me if I ever wondered why she would call me across
the country or even around the world when she had nothing of any
substance to say. MiddleFingerMomDad was emotionally abusive
and very controlling and on her really bad days, though I never
knew this reason, she would call because she KNEW that by the
end of the call, I would have her laughing and in a much better
place.
.
How nice were those two things?
.
.
.

[mythology]

6. From my mom

"You don't need a uterus to ______". Whether that was cook, or clean, or do my laundry or change the oil in my car. I was raised with the strange notion that there isn't men's work and women's work and that I should learn to do all sorts of things for myself so that I'm not stuck eating peanut butter sandwiches since I'm rather unlikely to get married (not that she knew that when I was a kid and being taught such things).

Unfortunately far too many people I've met since then haven't held such beliefs. I remember once while working in the IT department of a university a female student came in with a laptop with soda spilled on it and a cracked screen saying that she couldn't fix her computer because she was a girl. I was thoroughly unamused. But likewise, I've met many guys who say they can't cook because they are guys. Equally unamused.

[winter is coming]

7. Hmm.

My dad: about a year before his death, looked at me and said, "My golden child," with such love in his voice that it makes me tear up even now, years after his death. I've no idea what prompted it, as I always thought my brother was his secret favorite.

My mom (indirectly): My mom's an early-to-bed-early-to-rise type, but Dad was a night owl, as I am, so he and I had a lot of late night chats. My sophomore year of college, I came home on break and he told me one evening that my parents had made their wills. Following the attorney's suggestion, they decided to name one of their children as executor. Dad told me he'd expected my mom to want one of my sisters (older than me, and closer to Mom) and he was going to campaign for me, until Mom surprised him by simply saying, "I think it should be winter_is_coming".

[Bertha Venation]

8. It wasn't what he said, it was what he did.

My father steadfastly refused to acknowledge Mrs. V.' s presence in my life. He never asked about her. Never put her name on his Christmas cards for the first seven years we were together. Then, in 2007, he addressed his Christmas card to both of us. My jaw dropped, and I wept.

Less than a month later, before I could thank him, he was gone.

[Loryn]

9. My father.

Whose idea of child rearing was a tie between criticism and disapproval said to me one day "I love you, and God loves you, and you are an important person."

[pipi_k]

10. Also not what they said...

but what they did...

They indulged...encouraged... my love of reading

Every few months in grade school the teacher would take orders for books through Scholastic Book Services. My parents always let me do that, even though money wasn't always that plentiful.

They bought me books from the store.

They got me a library card so I could check out books whenever my father needed new ones to read.

And each year they paid for the summer edition of a little newspaper called "My Weekly Reader".

They weren't perfect parents by any means, but that is the one really great thing they did. I can't thank them enough for encouraging my love of reading that persists to this day.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. we're moving.

[Chan790]

12. "Your mother's leaving us."

She wasn't. She was leaving him because he was a sadistic psychopath...we went with her.

Best day of my life.

[rurallib]

13. My Dad, during Vietnam, had a gas station

where I worked with another half a dozen college kids.
He was never too political, never said much about the culture - he would give us some shots about our hair.

One day when it was quiet he looks at me and say "I think you kids are right." Out of context so I asked "Right about what?" and he said "The War, civil rights, women's lib, even your hair - you're right about all of it. " I was stunned. We kind of let the conversation drop there. No sense having a victory dance or anything.

[kwassa]

14. My mom said "Remember the Five P's"

"Proper Planning Prevents Piss-poor Performance". I was so shocked that she used language like this; this was wildly untypical for her, which is why I remember it.

My parents weren't otherwise verbally supportive. That would be too demonstrative.

[Tien1985]

15. From pre-k to

12th grade, if my mom was home when I was leaving for school, she said "Learn something wonderful!"

[zanana1]

17. "Expect the worst...

and you won't be disappointed".

[Iggo]

18. Oh yes.

Dad: "Go ahead and ask her."

Mom: "Any man who believes in woman's work is a momma's boy."