All of your life, your parents have taught you. What have you taught your parents?

That they can depend on me to look after them and take care of them in their old age.

Not a thing. My dad had all the answers and my mom just listened to him. Fortunately, I admired a lot of their thinking, but they really didn’t care one whit what I thought. Too bad.

That I am smarter than they are….but they never believe me :P

When I was in my 20’s, my mom was at the end of an unhealthy relationship, but I was wary. One night, I told her that she went from unhealthy relationship to unhealthy relationships like Tarzan went from vine to vine- not letting go of one until he had a grip on the next, and she had been at it since I was 4 years old. All her relationships overlapped with the next… OOoooohhhh… I don’t think she’s been more angry at me than she was that night.
BUT. She stayed single for 8 years! The next guy she dated, then married is still the best guy she’s ever been with and they have a wonderful relationship. :-)

I didn’t get a chance to teach them anything. If they were still here I think I and my siblings would have taught them that dogged determination can get you where you want to be and that they produced kids with a lot of dogged determination.

@linguaphile Do you remember what gave you the courage to say that to your mom?

@cletrans2col Total impulse. I wasn’t thinking! I said it more offhandish because it was just something I suddenly noticed. Glad I did say something though!

A variety of sayings in Czech and Dutch when I’ve lived in those countries, an awful lot of travel tips.

Oh, and I taught my mother how to type again and use Windows when I was maybe 10. That actually changed the way she interacts with the world.

Keep that liquor cabinet locked up tight.

Never answer the door when we’re smokin grass. Grass….does anybody call it that now?

Possibly two that are still works in progress:
– To let go of stuff. She may have the space to store it, but the excuse, “Someone in the family may want it.” is no longer the case for many of these items. No family member wants the the box of used clothes patterns from years ago. Nor do they want the box of pots and pans that she brought back when her mother died. She has things tucked away all over the house like this.
– That she doesn’t need to describe a situation by using a label for a person different than her when telling it. For example, “When I was at the grocery store, a nice black woman helped me get something off of the top shelf.”, or “The lovely gay couple that live up the street recently opened a shop downtown.” Every time she does it, when the story is over, I ask her what being black or gay had to do with it. And now that I think about it, she hasn’t done it in the past couple of years.

Apparently I have taught them how to be a better parent as they constantly remark at how I am doing a better job at raising my boys than they did raising me. Though I think they did a fine job!

I taught my dad to not say “colored” in regard to people who are black/African-American. He was in the hospital and there was a lovely nurses aide who was very kind to him. He liked her a lot, but referred to her as “that colored girl Sherry.” I told him that if he liked her so much, he could also respect her and either call her just by her name or, if he had to refer to her race, that there were better terms.

I taught my mom how to use an ATM.

I was fortunate enough to have two parents. They dedicated their lives to my brother and myself. In their eyes, we could do no wrong. My brother and I knew this, so when my dad retired, my brother and I reversed the order and gave them both our undivided attention.

My mother was an artist, so we kept all of her art supplies up to date. My dad loved his CB radio, so we made sure he had everything he needed to “stay on the air”.

My parents grew up on country music and opera…......yuk. They did not care for rock and roll music, UNTIL, I decided to change their mind. I bought my first set of drums and practiced to rock and roll songs. I thought that if they heard the music enough, they would eventually give in and accept it.

Boy, did they ever! My mother died at age 93 and my dad died at age 80. But, on their way out, they were the coolest parents on the planet. They came to my bands concerts and all the radio stations in our house and cars, were switched to rock stations.

They are missed.

@john65pennington – You just made me tear up. What a good relationship you all had. Thank you for telling us that.

The most recent thing I taught my mom, is that she will never, EVER, hit me again.

Abstinence. ;)

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Endless patience!

@john65pennington nothing wrong with a little George Strait or Randy Travis, but it is cool that they supported you.

What in their yard they can eat, which is luckily just about everything.there. They’ve got a good yard.

Patience.

How to use an iPod.

I don’t know why the iPod was always an issue, my parents are fairly tech savvy, but the iPod always seemed to confuse them,

Things usually turn out okay after all.

That they are not forgotten, that through their trials and tribulations I have become who I am today.
That I understand their choices in life and have become stronger for it too.
That I have learned determination., patience,tolerance,understanding amoung many more traits that they have exhibited throughout my life time with them.
That I will pass on the lessons to others searching for answers about life, in order to assist them on to a mature outlook and understanding of their own journy in life.

Everything comes at a price, the price of children growing up, is the price of parents getting old. Time is a valuable thing, very precious.