Day Twelve - Relationships With My Parents

Day Twelve - Relationships with My Parents

"Bloody parents - they're worse than children" ~Me

My relationship with my parents hasn't always been perfect, like all children I started off seeing them as opponents - everything was a struggle, everything was a contest, but thankfully as I grew up I began to realise that they were actually there to help and that between us we could get far more done by pulling in the same direction than in opposites and I can safely say now that while we don't always see eye to eye, we're always there for each other.

My parents have always been fantastically supportive of everything I've tried to do and always been there with advice and gentle guidance to help me find the right path.

"Just because you know how it's done, doesn't make it any less magical"

I've always been somewhat in awe of my dad; his musical talent (and his humility when anyone comments on it) and his ability to do DIY tasks that almost seemed mystical to me, when I was growing up he always had a little story or a joke for every situation and it was always him that made me feel better when I'd fallen over, he's also always protected me as best he can (an example that springs to mind is him making a particularly draconian English teacher of mine actually cry infront of me) I think it's because of this that I've always strived to make him proud of me (though I have occasionally missed the mark considerably).

"Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease." ~ Lisa Alther

My mother has always been the organiser from my experience; while she insists that she doesn't hold the power in our household, in truth she does (our house operates on a fully democratic system: myself and my father get one vote each, my mother gets four votes) Again really, I've been in awe of my mother for a long time, she works very hard for our family, keeping up fairly long hours in a job that was the only thing that kept us afloat for the last few years, in that time she's had to cope with a lot of stress and while I would hope that we've helped her through that as best as we can, she's mostly coped by herself and for this reason it is my firm belief that my mum is truly the strongest person I know.

If either of you are reading this (which I don't doubt will happen) I love you both so very much and am truly grateful for everything you've done for me over the last 22 years.

Nik.