What are your parents like?

[HEyHEY]

My parents are good people, my mother is a bit of a rascist, but never revealed it to me until I was about 14. Her racism is a Canadian kind though, she think's it's funny, but doesn't hate people of colour when she gets to know them. I've been in interacial relationships and she's adored the girl. As well, I've seen her chastise her late mother for saying racist things, so it's hard to read. But she's from a working class Irish family, of Belfast decent, so it's kind of expected, but not excused.

My half-scottish father, however, is a different story, he hates racism. I've seen him get upset at my brother in law for saying racist things. He's from an extremely poor family and moved 23 times in his youth. HIs father used to come home and say, "I've sold the house, were'e moving."
I have alot of respect for my Dad, when he was 16, his parents said "We can't afford two kids, one of you has to leave." Even though he was the youngest, he left. Thenput himself through two years of University then quiot because he couldn't work full - time and go to school. Now, he owns his own business, and is a City Councillor. One of the reasons I respect him so much is because when I was ten, I asked him why a Canadian figure skater (Rob McCall) died of aids. He said, "That's what happend when you get two gay..." then trailed off, it's like he realized his stupidity and didn't want to pass it to his son. A few years later, I asked a similiar question, his tune was totally different and he said something to the effect of he had gay friends and there was nothing wrong with it. He backed that up a few years later by employing a lesbian. When my brother in law made a comment about it he said "They're all people to me."
As well, no matter how busy he was, he always made sure he spent time with his kids, even after working many 16-hour days. So, I can say I truly would like to be like my dad - minus the Canadian alliance membership.

How about you?

[Dastard Stepchild]

1. Wonderful parents....

strongly Democratic, very liberal. My mother, aside from being bright and witty, is one of the sweetest women I have ever met. I adore her. My father, also very bright and witty (in a very dry way), is one of the most honest and trustworthy individuals I have ever met. I adore him as well. I admire their tenacity, their integrity, their commitment to their ideals and their love of each other and me. I am quite proud to be their daughter, and I grow increasingly more so as the years progress.

[warrens]

2. Hmmm

My father is an unrecontructed nazi big-business type, and my mother, before her alzheimer's, was a fairly moderate, but irritating, Republican. Hard to argue politics with your mom.

My father is the type who when I noted that the paper mill he ran really stank up the town, would say, very sarcastically, "sweetheart, that's the smell of MONEY." When the Kinks album Lola Vs. the Powerman came out, I thought Ray Davies must have been listening to my father talk.

[progmom]

3. My parents rock.

My mom has always been very liberal (born in Netherlands, raised in Canada), but my dad represented the conservative side (mostly fiscal conservative, registered Republican). I remember the fall when my mom put up a Mondale poster in the front window...and my dad put up a Reagan poster right next to it.

Fast forward 10 years. We lived in Europe for 3 years, got a good glimpse of socialism in action (not perfect, but not as fucked up as we are these days!). Then the repukes go after Clinton relentlessly. My dad - my hero - writes a letter to the RNC telling them he's fed up with their tactics, he no longer agrees with their policies, they're not upholding democracy or even the definition of a republican...and renounces his membership in the Repuke party.

He's now a registered democrat, gave a bunch of money to Kerry's campaign, writes anti-Bush letters to the editor like every month. I'm so proud!

:bounce:

[Feathered Fish]

4. Those are some stand up parents.

Why the membership in CA?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

5. Well...

my biological mother has Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Schizoaffective Disorder is suspected as well. All untreated. She is addicted to several prescription drugs and borderline antisocial (in the clinical way). Her paranoia is also rather out of control. She can be violent one moment, smiling and happy the next. She physically abused us growing up, neglected us (being left by her on a street corner in the cold was sure fun!), emotionally battered us, etc. She made Joan Crawford look like the fucking Tooth Fairy, seriously.

My biological father is a nice guy, good heart, but a total and complete wimp. I am philosophical about it nowdays: he simply has bad taste in women. His first wife was the woman I just described, who did him the favor of leaving him and taking his children and never letting him see them again (me and my brother). Some favor. He needs a spinal cord transplant, as he lets people just walk all over him.

My stepmother is his second wife. She won't leave him. But they are married in name only. She is verbally and emotionally abusive towards him, has cheated on him, and is highly unbalanced. He had two kids with her, too.

My stepfather, married to my biological mother (well they divorced in 1999 and remarried each other in 2001), is a huge alcoholic. BUT he is the reason I am a liberal today, as he taught me in ways that lead to a liberal upbringing. He once had a good heart and soul, but I think the alcohol has sucked everything out of him and just left a bitter shell of a man.

I have no relationship whatsoever with any of the four people I just described. All my grandparents are deceased. My family consists of my husband, daughter and our good friends.

[Is It Fascism Yet]

12. Hi Moonbeam

You have a beautiful handle, and seem to be very lovely person, despite of the difficulties you have survived...it seems to have made you analytical, thoughtful, and determined to be a good mom yourself, since you name your spouse and offspring as your "family". Good luck, and remember, they put a lot of lead and mercury into our brains, and, aggressiveness is a symptom of heavy metal poisoning, and thought/emotion are dependent on chemical reactions. Maybe mom would have done better had she not been poisoned.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

14. Wha?

Thanks for what you said about me, but you lost me at the end....????

[Jersey Devil]

6. Dad was Archie Bunker. Mom was (and still is) Marie Antoinette

I used to watch All In the Family with my Dad and he couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about, thought Archie was a regular guy. I laughed and eventually Dad mellowed out and began accepting things Archie could never have. As for Mom, she never changes. She is a sweetie but has no clue and thinks that those who have not should just belly up to the table and demand their share, not realizing that there are some who might want to deny them.

[yvr girl]

7. They ran away and joined the carnival for a while

if that tells you anything?

[NV Whino]

8. Not what you would call outstanding parents

My father died many years ago just short of retirement. I always thought it was the thought of spending every day with my mother that actually killed him.

My mother turned 91 today, and has actually mellowed a bit. When I moved her north from LA a couple of years ago she had to reregister to vote. She had been a life-long Republican. I told her if she voted for anything even vaguely resembling Republican I would disown her. So for the first time in her 80 or so years of voting life she voted Democrat.

All in all, certainly not bad parents, but not outstanding parents either.

[Wapsie B]

9. Both hard-working farmers

in their younger years. Mom is what I'd call a moderate republican politically. She was always the one to talk to in our house, even told me to go ahead and major in music in college when Dad had a fit. He wanted me to go into a hard science like accounting or law. Politically he'd make a John Bircher look like a communist. I remember him being happy about JFK, RFK, MLK and John Lennon being killed, overjoyed as a matter of fact.

[Kali]

10. Mom was a saint - really.

She died 8 years ago and on her deathbed was apologizing for being a bother to the nursing staff and thanking them by name for their help.

Father. Hmm. Really intelligent guy. Not afraid to go against the mainstream in academic thinking - bit of a trouble maker. Intellectual, extremely ethical. One of my proudest facts about him was he quit the pledge process at a fraternity when he found out they didn't allow blacks. This was in the early 50's and his parents and everybody else were really into that kind of shit. Took some balls. He's not been the greatest father or family member, but he came from a pretty sick mother who didn't know her own mother, who ALSO didn't know hers. All died young, so there wasn't much nurturing passed along in that line of my family.

[murielm99]

11. My parents are born again Christians.

For the last thirty-five years, nearly every conversation with my father has ended with him giving me a sermon. I seldom argued with him.

Not long ago, I told him that his religion had become hateful and dangerous. I told him I would no longer have any conversations with him that had anything to do with religion. He listens to Falwell and Robertson, and yells about how we are having a religious war in this country. He believes there is no separation of church and state in the Constitution. I just could not take any more of it.

That was when they were still speaking to me. They stopped speaking after my mother told me about her anti-abortion work. I told her she had no business meddling in the reproductive choices of young women. I told her that I supported Planned Parenthood financially, and had attended the March for Women's Lives in Washington with my daughters.

Oddly enough, I have a brother who is a convicted felon. They support and love him wholeheartedly. I have another brother who is gay. I am almost certain they know he is gay. They like him, too.

I have a good relationship with both my brothers. But I got sick and tired of my parents' hypocrisy. I am relieved that they are not speaking to me. I told my grown children that they were free to have whatever type of relationship they wanted with their grandparents. I am not going to interfere in that.

I am a liberal Christian. But I just can't find any forgiveness in my heart for the kind of hateful Christianity my parents are practicing.

[American Renaissance]

13. where do I begin...

My step-father is a fundie scum bag who has done everything in his means to try estrange me from my mother, I really just hope the bastard dies. The alimony my father paid to my mother went to that shithead and his church. I look forward to pissing on his grave.

My real father is a great man who did everything he could to give me a normal childhood when my parents divorced, even though he was financially and emotionally destroyed. He brought me to Canada as a child and as a result I have permanent residency in Canada, that counts for something. I don't want to imagine what would have become of me if I went with my mother.

My mother is a very sick woman who has been brainwashed by a bunch of fundie assholes. She once had a career, was athletic and educated, now she just wastes her days mailing fundraising letters for that stupid church.

My parents loved one another, but when he was laid-off from McDonnell Douglas he was out of work for a long time, that took quite a toll on the marriage. He ultimately moved to Canada for a job and to get away from everything. For alot of reasons he had become totally disgusted with the United States.

When that bastard who stole my mother finally dies, I am bringing her home with me and getting her deprogrammed or medicated or whatever is required to get her back.

[the Princess]

15. Oh you had to ask.

My parents are both Raving Conservative republicans. They taught me to hate people of different colors and ethnicity and they also taught me sex was bad and dirty.

My father still uses the *N* word

My mother hates men and is extremely passive aggressive

My father listens to Rush and quotes him to me and Wayne.

I don't like them much - I will tolerate them for Thanskgiving but that's it for me for the rest of the year.

I wish things were different - but they aren't. That's the reality.

One funny thing tho - you should have seen their faces when they met my old hippy - Ultra Liberal Democratic boyfriend (now husband) CO Liberal. LOLOL It was PRICELESS!

[Metatron]

16. Interesting question

I have two gay, log cabin Republican moms (who have never come out for whatever reason). My dad and step-mom are fundamentalist Christians. They are all good people, excluding the Republican thing. My mom and dad didn't get divorced until I was in high school. My brother and I had truly perfect childhoods until my dad found Jesus :) I'm finding out how rare that is and how lucky my brother and I were.

The funniest thing is that my parents have always voted, but never talked about politics when I was a kid. I just assumed that everyone was liberal like me. I was very disappointed as an adult once I figured out their political persuasions. Out of the four parents, I think my mom is the only one who actually votes by candidate rather than by party. I suspect she voted for Kerry, although I would never ask!

[hunter]

17. I'm going to be quiet. My mom might be lurking about...

Ah, what the heck...

My mom and dad are California liberal democrats (...well except for the time while I was a kid and my mom was a Jehovah's Witness.) My mom's family left Europe in the 1800's and settled in the west because they were pacifists. My mom's dad was a pacifist (but certainly not a Jehovah's Witness!) and was a Conscientious Objector during the Second World War. He got into a lot of trouble protesting the Japanese internment, and he once got beat up by the police for that. He worked in the shipyards and had friends who were asian, black, and probably gay too.

My mom eventually left the Jehovah's Witnesses for her political activism. She worked with Senator Alan Cranston on some Telecommunications legislation. For a few years she had her own small town radio talk show.

My dad is a retired art teacher. Mostly he is an artist. He loves to talk politics, but if he's registered on DU he hasn't told me. After the Second World War his father retired from the Army Air Force as a Major, and later worked as an engineer in the Apollo space program. My grandfather was a bit of a racist at times, but it was strange because he could work with "coloreds" he "respected" and it seemed his respect was pretty automatic. My dad rejected his father's racism, and proudly shows off his Official White Liberal Democrat Credentials, but sometimes he'll make a generalization that he won't recognize as racist.

As a young man I put my parents through hell. I used to get into terrible fights with my dad. It took me nine years to graduate from college, and even when I did, I still wasn't quite human... I burned through several senior thesis advisors, and the one who finally signed off on my thesis always kept me at a safe distance. Whenever I got into some sort of trouble in college I couldn't face my parents with, there were a couple of people who would look after me, some of them for very selfish reasons, some of them because they were just good people.

By some miracle, I eventually became human, and I now have a good relationship with my parents.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

18. My parents......

....Dad is very liberal, yet from a rich family. Mom grew up in a poor family during the Depression, and also a Democrat, but not as liberal as my dad. My father is a hardcore democrat, I doubt he's voted for a Repug since Eisenhower. He's a good guy, but he gets to riled up sometimes, very much argumentative over silly things. My mom is very calm, and understanding....the best mom anyone could have.

[jdots]

19. my parents were interesting beings

Wasp marrys un bahmitvahed jew so it was Unitarian progressive peace freak beat nick social outcast lonelyness for my sister and me who became my brother at 56 years old.That is about as much as can be said.They read alot and thru it all i was lucky,I love them both and forgive them.My mother died died in 65 and my dad died in 88,wish my kids could have known them.

[Technowitch]

20. My father is a John Bircher who sells guns...

...and my mother is a classic co-dependent battered wife.

My entire family is certain I'm a changeling.

[bliss_eternal]

21. I'm more than familiar with insanity...

My father grew up in Virginia, and is an ethnic minority, yet he has voted Republican as far back as I remember. I was punished once as a child for speaking out against Nixon in our home. I find it insane that a man that lived in a community that has signs on the lawn that read,"no dogs, no sailors and no n*****s" would vote Republican.

My father also 'found religion' again in his later years. (He was studying to be a minister before he married my mother).

If you live in Southern California and ever watch any cable stations you've seen this insane, elderly man with white hair, smoking a cigar while seated in a very large chair. He intermittently scribbles wildly on a board behind him on the stage, while ranting about unintelligible things. His name is Dr. Gene Scott. My father attends his church. I've had nothing to do with him since. He really lost what little mind he had left when he started going there. I am certain there is something VERY wrong with that church, that man, and anyone that goes there and that includes my father.

My mother...well what can I say. She has always hated me and showed me as such. I had two black eyes before the age of five. But those were times when no one really spoke about child abuse. I recall going to elementary school with a black eye and the teacher's discussed it very matter of factly, like it was no big deal.

When I finally 'got' how sick my mother was and still is, I cut all ties to her and most of my family--and I haven't looked back. I only wish I had done it sooner.

My family now consists of friendships I've maintained over the years, and my husband.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

22. My Mom ROCKS

She was and is absolutely everything I want to be. She's really generous, extremely intelligent, and very understanding. She pulled herself up through the ranks of the world by being a strong woman and a hard worker. She excels in her job, which I really admire because she feeds off of success, even though she rarely gets credit for it. Sometimes it drives me crazy how accepting and forgiving she is because I want to complain about my husband and she is always telling me to 'see it from his point of view'. She also works the neighbor's child and is teaching him english. AND did I tell you she raised me with no help from my shiftless drunk of a father?

[CO Liberal]

23. Mine Have Both Passed On

Both were life-long Democrats.

Dad was more conservative than Mom, but mellowed as he got older. I think that may have been because he grew up in a white-only environment - even served in the Marines when it was still segregated - and never actually MET very many black people until the Early '70s, when he was an Amway distributor.

Mom stayed at home until I was in high school, so she was a Den Mother when I was a Cub Scout, a Troop leader when my sisters were in the Girl Scouts, and a chauffer to all sorts of activities. Mom was always involved in local politics. She worked at the polls every year as long as she could. She regularly attended PTA, school board, and Township Committee meetings, and served on the committee that drew up the Master Plan for Morris Township, NJ in the Early '70s. When she died in 1998, the township committee passed a resolution marking her passing and formally thanking her for her service to the community.

Mom and Dad both encouraged me and my sisters to watch the news, read the papers and magazines they subscribed to (LIFE, LOOK, Reader's Digest, Saturday Evening Post, plus the local papers), and learn enough to think for ourselves. We regularly discussed current events over the dinner table, and learned to form opinions and speak our minds. For that, I'm forever thankful to them.