five random badass things i learned from my parents
Sunday, October 19th, 2008I’m limiting myself to just five, because otherwise I’d stay here writing for the next seven hours and my children, who have been banned from the house until further notice, may well freeze to death.
Come to think of it, i think I learned that move from my mom.
In no particular order:
1. How to drive stick shift (mom and dad)
2. If you have two or three people outside of your immediate family who you can trust – as in, you need help moving the body in the middle of the night trust - consider yourself lucky and hold onto them no matter what (dad)
3. How to get from Stamford to Manhattan by car, either for free or paying a minimum of tolls (dad)
4. The fine art of burping and soothing a screaming baby (mom) (and oh my god, how this came in handy in the middle of the night 24 hours after giving birth the first time!)
5. How and why to show respect to coaches, teachers and other grownups so you don’t get tossed from the team, stuck in detention, uninvited from the next sleepover (mom)
How they reared four of us, I’ll never fully grasp. These two boys of mine are quite a challenge. Something tells me they’ll have their own lists to compile and stories to tell some decades down the line. Maybe starting with “Hey, remember that time Mom locked us out of the house for three hours because we were wrestling in the living room?”
