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March 20, 2007
Our parents and PDAs
In my entire life, I have seen my parents show affection to each other exactly once. It was Christmas Day evening about 18 years ago. In the living room, my father has a lazy boy type chair in which no one else may sit if he is in the room. He ALWAYS sits there, unless he is eating (there's a small table for eatin', in the corner). This one time he decided to sit on the long couch with my mother's head in his lap, and his arm on hers. I just stood and stared. And I have seen nothing like that since.
I don't believe that my parents should have ever been together. It's almost a shame they even met. I can't even bear to ask my mother why she made the choices she made. For several reasons, though, they stuck it out, although divorce was highly unlikely to have been on the table as an option, and not necessarily for moral reasons. I have asked several people if their parents ever showed affection to each other regularly, and only one of them has said yes. So I ask you, regardless of age or ethnicity: Did you ever see your parents (or the people that raised you) give light displays of affection, such as the odd little kiss, an affectionate arm squeeze or even sitting together on the sofa? Was it a normal thing to see? Remember, I am not talking about foreplay, or anything like that. Just the small stuff that might even last a half a second.
Something else to note: Not only have I never seen my parents give affection for one another except for that one time, but I have never seen any of my siblings do it, either, except when my sisters got married, and one of my brothers. And two of those occasions seemed a little bit forced.
Posted by JonasParker at March 20, 2007 9:09 AM
Comments
All the time.
Posted by: lightspeedchick at March 20, 2007 10:34 AM
My parents only got married because Mum was pregnant (with me) and then only stayed married because of the kids. They never showed anything more than polite civility to eachother. I DID see them kiss once though, and it was a rather awkward moment.
Oddly though, as soon as they were divorced, it was as if a huge weight was taken off them and they became the best of friends.
Posted by: Kerry at March 20, 2007 3:39 PM
Always, and with all of my four parents...
Posted by: vanou at March 20, 2007 6:10 PM
I'd say my parents have had such moments (the morning-after-cetain-activities ew ew ew) where dad would tickle mom and she would squeal. My sister and I would watch in morbid fascination. This happened about maybe 10-20 times in the last 30-odd years. Aside from those moments, they mostly they keep well away from each other. I also remember seeing them hug maybe two or three times. All events were simply weird and slightly uncomfortable to witness.
Posted by: zura at March 20, 2007 10:07 PM
Our parents would do it in front of us (kissing that is). On a fairly regular basis. But they still ended up divorcing almost twenty years ago now.
Posted by: Frank at March 23, 2007 2:39 PM
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