Mothers Day

Do anything special? I took my mom out for dinner and got her an oversized card and some jewelry. Gave her a small gift like candy, flowers and chocolate every day this past week since she lives so close. I think she liked her Mommas Week. lol

My brother lives kinda far away, so he sent some flowers and my dad and I took her and my grandmother out for dinner. My parents don't really go in for these kinds of holidays and never really want or expect more than a card and a nice dinner. My mom is big on the cards though lol. I remember one mother's day maybe 15-ish years ago my dad straight up forgot about it, didn't get her a card or anything and my mom asked him about it and for some reason he thought "well you aren't my mother" was smart to say. You did not want to be in my house that day lol.

« Last edited by steelersrock01 on May 9th 2022 »

Sounds like your Dad steelersrock01 will never ever forget Mother's Day again. It must of been a bad day if you can remember it fifteen years ago when you were a young boy.

Sounds like you spoil your Mum rotten Warrior13.

Hahaha no, he definitely hasn't forgotten since then.

Mike: That's hilarious. XD

Dennis: I try. All my other siblings live out of state, so they usually just call or send a card.

You are the top man Warrior13, that's great. Your Mum obviously looked after you well when you were a kid to make you feel this way towards her.

Eh, I think my parents did the best they could. Cannot ask for much more with four other kids in the house. Might as well repay them in ways now that I can.

Yeah, same for me. I think my parents raised me "right" as best they could. Me and my brother try and do right by them now but they really don't ask for much or need anything, and anything they want they're in a way better position to get for themselves than I would be. I've got no horror stories or anything compared to a lot of people I know. They're maybe a bit boring. My mom can be a bit overbearing and worries too much, dad's a little distant and we don't really connect much. Good people that always worked hard and gave me values and are finally getting close to being able to relax and enjoy retirement. I had everything I needed and most of what I wanted growing up. Can't as for much more than that.

Yeah, I hear you on most of that. Honestly, if anything, us siblings probably terrorized each other more than our parents ever could. But, again, a little dog eat dog when five kids in the house, four of which all within five years of each other. Dad was pretty strict when I was younger, but after he gave up drinking, he became way mellow. He is now approaching twenty years sober, and he quit cold turkey. Mom has always been a little out there. Not sure if because of the family dynamics she grew up in or if a screw is loose or something, but I just try to be nice to her sans her flaws now that I am grown. I wish my siblings could the same, really in regard to both of my folks, but they cannot move on from the smallest of things. Sad, especially when considering our folks just turned 60 and will not be around for much longer in the grand scheme of things. Really, sometimes I have no idea; my siblings make me feel like I grew up in an entirely different household. But whenever they try to spout something, I always try to defend my folks and say they are really good people who tried their beat. Of course, sometimes a few of them say I am wearing rose colored glasses, but I do not care. Do not know why they cannot live for the now. Anyway, I have a great relationship with my dad, but we do butt heads every so often since we are both pretty stubborn. Great relationship with my mom as well, at least after you filter out the offness at times.

There's about 4 years between my brother and I, so we were close enough in age to be close and fight but not to be best friends like some siblings are. Ran in different social circles and all that. For a while as we entered adulthood where he was in college and I was in high school, and then later while I was in college and he had moved away from home we kind of lost contact. Always came home for holidays and such, but we've never had a relationship where we keep in constant contact. The past year or so we've reconnected a bit as he had moved back home to save on rent working remotely, now that he's moved away again we try and play a game or something once a week or so. It's tough keeping in contact sometimes, especially with extended family. I've got a ton of cousins that I hardly know that live within 20 minutes of me.

I hear ya on the dad thing. My dad was a major hardass when we were younger. His parents lived through the tail end of the Depression and passed some of those values on to him. Mostly in terms of being "frugal" - he grew up with a timer on the hot water, so it would only get hot during certain hours of the day. Filling up the half-empty ketchup bottle with water. Stuff like that. In some aspects we lived like we were struggling even though we've always been fortunate for our area. He's mellowed out a lot with age and really loosened up and seems to enjoy himself more. We just have absolutely nothing in common and have never really understood each other and I think there's a little resentment from both sides because of it. He sees a lot more himself in my brother than in me and for various reasons my mom's been more involved in my raising than with my brother's. He can be hard to talk and I think it's a product of how he grew up, my grandfather was very strict and a bit of a grouch. Good people though, salt of the earth blue collar workers.

That's a shame about your siblings. My parents are about the same age and don't have anything wrong with them but my dad hasn't taken the best care of himself and is starting to slow down physically a bit. Gonna be very hard for me to lose them, I don't have much in the way of other reliable family. Everyone has flaws and regrets and was slighted at some point or another. I've certainly gotten into it with my parents, there's some things where I think I was done wrong. But they aren't going to around forever. No point holding grudges. My dad used to be in business with his brother (always a terrible idea) and they had a disagreement 20 years or ago and it basically fractured that side of the family and deprived me of a real relationship with that aunt and uncle and those grandparents. It took a good 10 years to rebuild that relationship and things still aren't perfect.

I don't think any household is perfect, everybody likes to give the impression that theirs is, but behind closed doors everyone has problems somewhere whether it's estranged relatives, health problems, money problems, or a member of the family having some kind of substance abuse issue. There's always something somewhere that is not right. It's life I suppose, you just have to get on with it and make the most of the cards you have been dealt with. Life is too short to hold grudges. Makes me laugh when you see people on Facebook you know trying to give the impression that their life is perfect when you know full well they've got more problems than most.