It's All In The Genes...

They say you can blame heredity for just about everything. Yeah, yeah. I've heard that before, tell me another one. I didn't want to believe I could possibly be capable of doing the crazy and sometimes freakish things my parents did. No...it can't be true. I will not become my mother..or father, albeit a little harder, but you know what I mean.

See, everyone loved my parents. They knew how to have fun. All of my friends wanted parents just like mine. Why couldn't I see just how fun they really were? I could only see the goofy stuff they did. They were always embarrassing me in front of my friends. Little did I know my friends loved them.

My dad was so laid back, nothing seemed to bother him. He'd laugh not only with you, but at you as well. I can remember the little neighbor boy coming over one day and my dad had a ball with him. I reflect back on this story and I think how different life was back then. Had he done what I'm about to tell you in today's world, the police and probably CPS would've been called on him. ~sigh~ so sad what this world has come to...anyways, back to the story. Dad was holding a balloon in his hand and told little Billy (yes, that's his real name) to run as hard as he could and hit the balloon with his face. He did it. Not once, not twice, but over and over again as we howled with laughter. Billy just grinned. He was having so much fun. (he was such a little weirdo). Dad was playing with him and Billy was eating it up. Something Billy's dad didn't do, sadly.

I can also remember my dad and his best friend driving around on "the lap" hanging out the car window with a sign that said, "I'm Kara's Dad". See, that's the stupid shit that used to embarrass me to death. He was notorious for doing goofy stuff like that.

My mom on the other hand was more of the rowdy one. She loved to get down and dirty in a game of euchre with all of my friends. They wouldn't come to see me, they'd come over to hang out with my mom. I can't tell you how many times I left my own house to get away from all my friends. We used to have paintball fights (in cars), slimefest (again in cars) and just general nights of cruising...with my mom. Ugh...again embarrassing. My mom would turn up CCR or Motley Crue really loud and drive with the windows down. Needless to say, anytime we passed any of my friends, Mom would honk and wave real big..drawing even more attention to us all the time talking really loud because of the music. I wanted to die.

But all my friends were envious because none of them had cool parents. They all wanted my parents and I desperately wanted theirs. I guess it's the 'grass is greener' theory. You always want what you can't have. Now that they're both gone, I would give anything to have them back.

Now that Mitch is a teenager, I hope I can be a mixture of both of my parents. Calm and easy going like my dad but a ball of fun like my mom. I want my son to want to be around me, but I realize that it's completely healthy for him to not want to. For him to be embarrassed at times. I'm ok with that. I want him to be able to look back and respect me as a parent. Knowing that I was there for him when he needed me, but yet there to have fun too. I want to be the mom who plays euchre to all hours of the night with him and all his friends but yet still want him to know he can rely on me when the going gets tough.

I want to be his foundation to a good life. Like my parents were to me.