Scalzi's Weekend Assignment For a Change

I haven't felt like doing one of these for a long time. I'm not sure why I'm doing it now. Maybe it's the last of my hormones kicking in.

Weekend Assignment #96: "For ladies: Name an incident when you thought: '"OMG I AM my mother! For guys: Same with your father!"

Actually I wish I were more like my mother, who died when I was 23. She did almost everything well. Valedictorian in high school. Horsewoman. Tennis player. Head nurse. Great cook. Fabulous gardener, etc., etc.

Her halo never got tarnished with me. She didn't have time to become annoying with year after year of making me listen to her pet phrases. 

However, there was one phrase she used that I found myself repeating often to my children as they grew up. Instead of saying something they were doing or speaking was wrong or bad, I would tell my darling daughters, "That's inappropriate." As the years passed and I knew I was starting to sound more and more like my mother, my kids started to pre-empt me. As soon as they had committed some kind of infraction, they would stop and look in my direction, roll their eyes and sigh,"We know, Mom, that's inappropriate."

I just know when they have kids they'll be saying it, too.

Extra credit: What did your parents do when you told them about it?

My mom died before I had children. But somewhere, she's probably smiling.

My father was a different story. After my mother died my dad remarried and began to say terrible things about her. It was bizaare. It was like they'd been divorced. So I finally said, "We have different memories of her, so I would appreciate it if you wouldn't talk about her in front of me."  Needless to say, I never shared any of my thoughts about her with him. Except to tell him that he was a jerk for treating her memory so badly.

Well, that was fun.  I wonder what next week's assignment will be.