On The Subject Of Family

Tonight, I’m having dinner with my parents and it’s sorta got me tripping. They got divorced six years ago and we haven’t all been in the same room since.

I’m sure that some of you have wondered just what my upbringing might have entailed. After all, Freud could have a field day analyzing my sexual urges and where they came from. But to be perfectly honest, I had a very nice childhood, though not necessarily a normal one. I don’t have any brothers or sisters so my parents also fulfilled these roles. That means we all got really close and they were more like my friends than my disciplinarians. Our bleeding-heart liberal household lent itself to a lot of openness, sexually or otherwise and, if given the choice, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

My mother always told me, even when I was very young, that when the time came for me to be sexually active she’d put me on the pill. When that conversation finally happened it was interesting, to say the least, but she was supportive and I was grateful for that.

When I first started dating my father required that my suitors come to the door and shake his hand. After the first dozen schmucks fulfilled this ritual, he told me we could skip that part until I met the guy I wanted to marry.

Both of my parents have always stayed far away from my sex life, as they very well should. I can’t imagine it never occurred to them that their daughter was not the most virtuous girl in the world. But they never judged, or preached to me, and they’ve always let me learn from my own mistakes. My mother has only given me three pieces of dating advice in my life:

1. Don’t sleep with one of your professors.
2. Married men never leave their wives.
3. Italian guys will break your heart.

Clearly, Mom’s learned from her mistakes, too.

As for what they think of this blog, Dad’s indifferent, Mom can’t make up her mind. The first few posts were hard for her to read, and I don’t blame her, those were a bit in-your-face. Hey, I had to get your attention somehow, and those were things I felt I needed to say at the time. Now she admires what it is I’m trying to accomplish and she likes that it’s gotten me writing again. But she admits she cannot understand my generation’s compulsion to use the Internet as a personal soapbox. Some things, she thinks, are just better left off the World Wide Web. And while she may have a point, I can honestly say that, so far, writing this stuff has been amazing. I’m working through things that I’ve needed to work through for a while, and I’m doing it with the support of those that love me. I’ve also been able to entertain some total strangers and hopefully make them think, too. All in all it’s been really positive I’d like to thank you for reading along.

Tonight will undoubtedly be an unusual experience. But I’d like to think that I’m in a good place to handle the emotional fallout, if there is any. In fact, I feel stronger and better about myself than I have in a very long time. In a weird sort of way, perhaps someday this blog will end up making Mom and Dad proud for that reason.

xo

ps-for those keeping score, I went home alone on Saturday night, except for the large cheese pizza that my drunk ass ate half of. So that puts us at Allie: 2 Temptation: 1 Domino's: 1.