I’m having a really frustrating day. SPF/DCIM authentication is an evil torture, created to make people go nuts, and I’m sticking to that story.
I think I might be getting dumber. Braining seems to be more difficult, especially when it’s something that’s not in my typical wheelhouse. Or maybe it’s just the lack of sleep. My sleep patterns get messed up lately, so maybe caffeine is the answer.
When you are a teenager, your parents seem to have the most annoying habits. They get obsessed with weird things like proper way to do laundry or hang clothes, and they get seriously irritated over minor things. Sometimes they wildly exaggerate. “If you don’t stop wasting so much water, the septic system will overflow and we’ll have a flood. Then don’t come crying to me.” When you call them on it, they say things like, “You’ll get when you’re older.”
I’m now older. I get it.
Parental things I now think and sometimes say. Mostly I think them, because the constant barrage of muttering is not helpful to anyone, including me.
- Nobody is in this room. Why are the lights on? Why are the lights on in the pantry? Is there someone living in there?
- Who left the bedroom door open? You know the cat will get on the bed and cover it with hair.
- Why is the patio door open? I’ve closed the patio door three times today. This is the fourth time I’m closing it. Are we made of money? Do we absolutely have to have scorpions inside?
- Please don’t pile the mail on the dining room table. We have a mail table for that. Yes, I know I left my craft folder on the mail table and it’s out of place, but me misplacing my craft folder won’t land us in jail and incur fines. Missing IRS and Texas Workforce correspondence will.
I seem to be doing a lot of door closing lately. Our area does have mild weather with occasional spikes of emergency weather, and I fully understand that dogs need to pee and it’s nice to have fresh air, but the door really doesn’t need to be open 24/7. Also kitchen door doesn’t have the protection of the bug screen and therefore needs to stay closed unless I’m frying something in there.
And let me just point out that while I’m closing doors and grouching, my husband is treating me to witty commentary about all of this. But oh, if someone touches the thermostat, all the wit and Shakespeare quoting goes out the window and Gordon transforms into a dragon.
I think it’s because as adults, we come to value routines. We frequently have to do very boring things like taxes and domain authentications, and routines help to keep us on track.
Now it’s your turn. What parental habits you’ve picked up that you never would’ve anticipated as a teenager?
Rinse out the recycling, please! Ex. plastic that had food in it, pop bottles and cans, dog and kitty canned food, etc…I feel as if I am doing this half the day????
with me it’s the opposite, I’m now 52 years and I’m a lot more chill than I was when I was younger. I used to stress about everything being done a certain way, yes even how the clothes were hung on the line.
My life is definitely simpler now than it was then, so maybe it’s a reflection of that rather than my own personal development. (And I’m definitely not turning into my mother – yay LOL)
My dad used to have discussions with my mom and us girls about the things we put into the septic system. I kept wondering why it was an issue; our pipes never blocked up. Now I own a septic system and I’m shocked at some of the things he let us do. (Kitchen garbage disposal?? Not in MY house!)
Also the lawn mower is my baby and I won’t let my husband drive it because he doesn’t love it like I do. (Rocks? I didn’t see any rocks. Ooops…) I’m totally becoming my father.
“I think it’s because as adults, we come to value routines.”
Yeah. Onnaccounta routines are a great substitute for an actual memory.
Perfectly true!
Not so much a parental habit but my aunt used to be obsessed about us not touching her walls in her house when I was young because she didn’t want her nieces and nephews to mar them with our handprints (??). I’d be going down the stairs (banister on one side and wall on the other) and I can still hear her crying “Don’t touch the walls! Don’t touch the walls!” My parents never told me and my sister to not touch walls in our own house (we weren’t super messy) so we didn’t get it. She finally stopped bleating it when she had her own baby and her clean walls obsession went out the window. Try to reason with a small toddler about not touching walls in your own house hahaha. To this day, I still don’t get it and love to remind her of it.
A Dad Routine
Every time it snowed, my Dad couldn’t just look out the window or through our storm door to gauge the snow level on the (very big) driveway. He HAD to open the door to peer out, even though you could clearly see everything through the glass.
We used to make fun of that every time.
Now, guess what we do when it snows?
Sigh
The other day I told a driver “God bless your stupid head”. I have become my mother!
my mother used to add an ice cube to her coffee because it was too hot, and i made fun of her for it. now i add an ice cube to my tea if i am out to a restaurant. at home my “coffee” maker i use for tea is set lower than the restaurants so i can drink from my glass right away.
It’s interesting to think about becoming our parents. My siblings tell me that I look like our mother. The folks that knew my parents tell me that I’m just like my mother. It’s not just the words you repeat that they told you or the visible actions like loading the dishwasher. Sometimes it is how you care about other folks and try to do better.
Loading the dishwasher “incorrectly” drives me bonkers. And yes, I know I’m anal.
The ice tray not being filled. it fills me with rage. it’s heatwave time in Australia.
You’ll want cold icy dinks..sensible in the heat, your kidneys will also thank you.
But how can you get nice cold drinks filled with ice cubes if after empting the ice cube tray into its holding container if you don’t refill the bloody ice cube tray. Every afternoon I’m greeted with empty trays and containers. I refill that tray three times during the night to get a decent amount, that afternoon both are empty…
grrrrrrr
My mother wore a housecoat in the house. If she needed to go out, she’d dress, go out, come back, and put on her housecoat. Another errand? She’d get dressed again. And, OMG, during the lockdown, I pretty much started doing the same thing. I wear a housecoat/robe kind of thing when indoors. I do try hard to do all errands in a single trip, however. Pretty much, when I get home, I’m home.
Second thing – our parents used to take afternoon naps. They weren’t all that old at the time. I don’t do it every day, but I do find myself zoning out in the midafternoon – wake up with a book falling off my lap, or when my Kindle bops me on my nose.
I’ve (very nicely) folded your laundry. Why can’t you PUT IT AWAY?!
Laundry. I have to sort it and wash it. No one else or it’s war. Lol my poor husband has to deal with me. It so ridiculous and I can remember getting in fights with my stepmom over laundry and thinking she was such a control freak.
My daughter recently threw back at me that I left the light on. Says she that leaves the light in all day for the dog.
Shut the darn cupboard doors when you are done.
I used to think Mom was just anal. Now…it’s me.
+1
1) Tearing up envelopes and correspondence before throwing them away. Into tiny bits. To prevent crooks from stealing important information about me, in the event they go through my trash bins in the dead of night.
2) Checking that the kitchen tap is not dripping. Several times a day. Because we mustn’t waste water.
Can’t leave a sinkful of dirty dishes. Must sweep the floor at the end of each day. These were my mother’s habits, and now they’re mine. Oh, and nobody else can fold the f-ing towels correctly, lol!
I was the black sheep in a family of neat freaks. You are welcome to name my dust bunnies and take them home. Even so, I cannot abide non mealtime stuff on the kitchen or dining room tables. Put the gloves, the newspaper, the mail on the places set aside for them. Or throw them on the floor. I don’t care. Just not the tables. And no, positively no dishes left in the sink. We have a plethora of cabinets, a dishwasher and plenty of hot water, soap and towels. In my mind, I hear my mother laughing
Husband leaves 2 squares of toilet paper on the roll.
Should be punishable.
This was such a problem at my office for a while! Like, someone would literally balance a new roll on top of the empty roll but not actually PUT THE NEW ROLL ON THE HOLDER. Or they would leave TWO SQUARES on the roll. Or they would leave an empty roll and then a new roll just… sitting somewhere nearby. The secretary and I started taking pictures of how often this happened because, honestly, WTAF?!
Going into the kitchen and finding 2/3 cupboard doors open. No, they don’t close themselves.
punishment fit crime in my family. u leave door open lock it they can explain y when they beg to be let it. Slam a bedroom door remove it 1 week. (Works great with daughters). Leave lights on start flipping off breakers or put motion sensors in worst areas
Shoes! Shoes through the house! Taking off shoes in the living room, especially in winter! Unless you’re still working (this includes labour intensive/high-focus cleaning) take the shoes off!
Slamming doors. We were required to reopen and close the door if it was slammed. My parents used to remove doors if they were slammed.
No hairbrushes in the kitchen. If I ask you to do something it doesn’t mean wait three days. It means do it within the hour unless you have a reason to do otherwise (like load the dishwasher but not run it until the power is cheaper).
Scheduling. See also: commuting to weekend plans, calendar requirements, making hotel and dinner reservations, making deposits.
I have triplets, so I can’t road trip the way I was trained where you roll up to a roadside mid-tier motel, check to see if they have room, and if so, dump the kids in the pool with a hapless aunt standing guard while you unpack the car and mix the martinis. I need to know the kids and I have a place to sleep.
…committing to weekend plans..
My dad used to turn the light off in my room while I was still in it as a teenager. He would take my glass and put it in the dishwasher when I was not done with it as an adult. Now I am the one who roams the house picking up dirty socks off the floor, turning off TVs that are not being watched, turning off lights in unused rooms and running a grousing commentary. Sadly, my spouse is not especially witty in his comments. He does, however, occasionally pretend to be missing a hand or having an injury to his lower extremities when I inquire of no one in particular how everyone has broken arms or legs and can’t turn anything off or pick up after themselves.
SPF/DKIM are vile things and combine two things I absolutely hate, certificates and breaking email. With certificates if a Ku sneezes somewhere thinking about butterflies on Nexus then a certificate breaks. But just hearing you moan about them, and men with thermostats makes me love you both more! Keep up the fabulous work and don’t let the domain verifications get you down!
In my 30’s & 40’s and on into my 50’s I found myself ‘catastrophizing’. If you didn’t do something, it would certainly have an effect on life as we know it on planet Earth! Like, if you pick up after the dog dirt, you will live a better life and so will they. If you don’t, your parents will be fined or end up in jail and then where will you live??? I am sure there were steps to get to ‘jail’ during the ramp up to surely a catastrophe will happen. But fortunately, I don’t do that any longer. I just sigh a lot, work on my breathing exercises, and maybe just go take a nap, because I am seriously tired of having to think up things! LOL
I talk to myself, must have dishes washed or in the dishwasher (we didn’t have one growing up, so it was mom or us kids as we got older-dad washed up too).
I like to turn off the heat and air out the house at those magic short fall and spring moments in NW Louisiana. We are both retired AF, so beds get made in the morning. I wish I was as good at housekeeping as my mom was though. I’m terrible, good thing my hubby helps.
For me I see my Mom in the way I get frustrated when I have cooked and now it is time to eat. Suddenly someone has to go to the bathroom, or do a chore before they come to the table. In our family we are polite and wait for everyone. Meanwhile, I am quietly freaking out about the food getting cold.
Growing up in FL, you never leave the dishes in the sink. Standing water is attractant to Palmetto bugs. UGH!
I too mutter the traditional comments about lights and doors. For a northern English person these are ‘It’s like Blackpool illuminations here’ and ‘Were you born in a barn?’ respectively.
“Take two trips” …I hear it I’m my head every time I carry four heavy grocery bags, my purse, the mail I just picked up, and a full carafe of ice tea while I try to get the dog out if the car.
62 is fine. put a sweater on. then put on some pants!
Laundry not been put in the washing machine but dropped on the floor in front of it!!!!
There’s a wonderful poem called “Warning” which was written in 1961 by the late great UK poet Jenny Joesph. It’s about letting things go and having fun and it always brings me joy. Highly recommend reading it when being responsible feels like too much of a bother (also, who doesn’t look fabulous metaphorically wearing purple?).
The lights on in an empty room annoys me. Worst of all, my wife does it all the time…LOL (we’re empty nesters). The other one is the thermostat. As far as dishes are concernerd, I AM the dishwasher 😀
The curse of childhood, we all grow up to become our parents!
Its the immersion heater with us.
My parents patrolled that like it some high security facility. It was worth more than your life to touch the boiler no matter how cold it was or you’d end up with miserly insanity on your hands. We had the dials up and down depending on the time of day, what room it was, if someone was expected.
This house has one of those remote control thingies and the dial has gone blank so I can’t control it and it has it’s own ideas about which rooms need heated and which need your breath to be condensing when the radiator is set to max. So I can’t be as I was raised to patrol the sodding thing to make sure it’s only on when it’s absolutely needed. Does my head in.
I have a blanket obsession because of them, cold, cover yourself in a blanket, still cold, lie on it too and I’ll wrap you up like a sausage roll. Still cold, have another one and a jumper. Are you dressed? Is all of you dressed? Hmm, hot water bottle? I’ll put the heating on. Have more blankets (just bought another one today, it’s speckled).
Cost of living crisis here in the UK has brought it back hard.
Close the doors, your letting the heat out.
Put that light off and open the curtains, let the natural light in.
Why is the light on in here when no one is in here, that TV better not be blaring with no one watching it. With the modern twist, how can you be on the computer and the TV. Pick one (bonus for Tamatoa from Moana impressions), wait I’m picking one and you get the other.
Close those curtains and tuck the bottoms in, keep the heat in.
Don’t leave your dirty dishes there.
Pick up your schoolbag/shoes, they are causing a trip hazard.
Stop running around in your underwear is also popular here, although my parents never had to do that with me.
I will however explain my reasons for getting them to do things rather than saying “because I said so”. At the 3rd repeat of why you must do a thing (seriously why must I repeat myself?) becomes “because I say so” or this household is not a democracy, its a dictatorship shared between your Dad and I. Or Behold, I am the dictator and do as I command (bonus for megatron impression, at least in my head).
Sorry it occurs to me to ask, did anyone else ever get told not to use the last of the milk?
I’ve my own children now and I’m still wondering, who is to use the last of the milk? When could I use the last of the milk? Why is it for every container of milk, often there was another there but I still couldn’t use it. The rules were strange and confusing.
I do not say do not use the last of the milk, I do ask to be told if it is the last of the milk or close to the last of the milk so I can get more. Children who do not tell me get made to come buy the milk with me. They hate it.
The dishwasher has to be loaded a certain way. A very specific way. The dishes should not be put in there all willy-nilly and knocking against each other because THAT IS HOW THEY GET CHIPPED. And don’t crowd the silverware because then it doesn’t get clean. And that dish there isn’t dishwasher safe so quit trying to put it in the dishwasher!
(Note that we don’t have kids so all the above is generally voiced in muttered imprecations directed at my very helpful, very bad-at-loading-dishwashers husband.)
I’ve also been sounding very grandparent-y in recent harangues about how all the restaurants have raised the price of unsweetened iced tea – the CHEAPEST NON-WATER BEVERAGE – to $3 and dammit, I’m not paying $3 for a glass of iced tea. (And yes, I’m well aware that they do this to delay having to raise prices on food menu items, because people pay a lot less attention to the price of non-alcoholic beverages than the price of food, and I know I can get around it by ordering water, but my middle-aged brain just can’t seem to help shifting into full-on grandparent-mode about it.)
Saying things I swore I would never say to my kids, such as “Because I said so,” and “You’ll understand that when you are older.” Similar, but not precisely on point, feeling guilty because I slept in or called in sick to work.
I definitely understand the lights, but the one that made me feel like my mother was when I started getting super irritated at my son using so many cups and leaving them all over the place.
The first time I said “What is that crap you are listening to? That’s not music!” I’m pretty sure I stopped and looked around for my Dad – who has been gone since 2001. It’s bitter-sweet isn’t it? It reminds me of him but also that he’s gone. And my kids definitely listen to “music” that’s crap 🙂
As for the lights – that was my husband’s pet peeve. The light in the laundry room was always on because we used that little room for kitchen storage and it also has the door to the garage.
I fixed that problem by having him replace the light switch with a motion sensor. Now it turns on when you enter, and turns off automatically. I’ll bet my parents would have loved to have that technology!
I found myself repeating my dad. “Shut the door! Are you trying to heat/cool the entire neighborhood?”
My mother was a grammar (fill in your own horrible controlling person or group). She would pretend not to hear you until you said it perfectly, and once my niece didn’t say anything for an hour and when my mom asked her why she was so quiet, she said “Because I don’t want to have to say it over again”. I was not as bad as my mother, but I can’t abide certain mistakes of grammar, and will still force my 27 year old son to change it. His wife is speaking in her second language, and she is better at it than he is, for heaven’s sake!
Yes I’m firm withturn the lights off.
Also close the toilet lid. Germs spead more otherwise. (5sq ft radius)
Close the cabinet doors. No I don’t care which cabinet, ALL of them. If you’re not in it then close it.
For me it’s the lights and the thermostat. I follow everyone in my family around the house turning out lights. The other day I made my 12 year old come back upstairs and turn off the bathroom like and I had a moment. My dad used to do that to us and it made us crazy and now it’s me????. And I won’t turn the heat up for anything, as I sit on my couch with a blanket on and the thermostat at 64 when it’s 25 degrees outside. And my kid is complaining that it’s cold while sitting there in a pair of shorts????
Ahh, lights not like????
My parents would be 97 this year and were frugal in lots of ways, but our lights were always on all over the house, pretty much 24/7. Us kids all lived at home into our mid 30s and I was discussing the electric bill with friends and they were shocked to find that our bill was actually a fair amount lower than their bill because they were big on turning lights off. Lightbulbs are actually cheap to run, what raises your electric bill is having older inefficient appliances and a tv and ac unit in every room like they did. They insisted lights were the biggest part of the bill, but I looked up what the electric company was charging and calculated that if they left a 60 watt bulb on for 24 hours for a whole month, it would have been about 23¢
I don’t know that I picked them up from parents, so much as my grandparents. Because when the back door is open for too long, I growl in my best imitation of Grandpa, “I’m not paying to heat the whole neighborhood!”
Come to think of it, though, since I don’t have children, I do occasionally tell my younger dog that if she keeps making that face it will get stuck like that and everyone will be too afraid to pet her. But being a dog and not a human teen, she’s so happy with the attention that it works!
Inherited parental habit?
Refusing to spend money on things like $5 fancy coffee when I can make it at home (with good coffee beans). My dad (to this day) can’t understand the idea of spending money that way. Fast food is off the table (literally) too
“Why is the kitchen light on?”
“You had to WALK PAST THE DISHWASHER to put this in the sink! Just put it in the dishwasher!”
“Does nobody else notice when thr faucet isn’t turned off all the way? Is it really just me?”
“Oh my God, will you get your dirty socks out of the damn living room??”
That was yesterday. ????