Besides that my parents lived a world apart around the age I am now, I honestly don’t know what their life was like.
I think nothing.
I was there for it. It was a lot like mine, but more optimistic
I outlived my dad. He committed suicide at the age I was two years ago.
My mom spent age 32-63 paralyzed in a nursing home, so I think I’ve surpassed her life accomplishments at my current age as well.
Why was your mother paralysed?
She had ulcerative colitis, and there were medications she had to take for it but after awhile she stopped taking the meds out of vanity because they had side effects that she thought made her look too “puffy,” next thing I know she was in the hospital after having a stroke that paralyzed her at the age of 32 and she lived another 30 years paralyzed like that.
Wow, sorry to hear that. Terrifying to think we can make one misstep and end up invalid in bed, the rest of our life.
I was a small child at the time. They had a comfortable quality of life on a single income, owned a house, were putting kids through parochial $chool, were religious, were conservative (based on what was called conservative in the 1980s/90s), had minimal social life outside activities related to kids.
So very little in common with my life at the same age; I am not married/financially intertwined with my person and we have no kids.
I was still living with them, actually it was nice, they bought a houst just a coupple of years prior and my dad bought his first Mercedes Benz. They were traveling also, even though not as much and far as me now.
My father was a wage slave like me (working most of his waking week away, working OT on weekends) but at least they already owned a house for twenty years by this age whereas his profiteering generation made sure I’d never own one.
Quite a lot as I was already out on my own when my mom was in her early 40s.
I outlived my mother almost seven now (meaning that she died at the age I was seven years ago).
My dad was a hot shot lawyer for very questionable clients with a lot of money, but I never really had a relationship with him. Barely know him.
My parents were busy trying to control my fucked up sisters children, with my dad dumping as much responsibilty for child rearing as.possible on my mom, and my mom passively aggressively resenting it. Same way me and my sister were raised. My family’s a mess.
i know that if they worked hard they could get by.
By worked hard that meant my father, without a college degree, was able to afford:
- A small 3 bedroom house with a yard.
- 2 cars.
- 3rd kid on the way.
- Wife that was nearly bedridden because of said kid.
I don’t think that’s even remotely possible today.
I know infinitely more about my mom than my dad. I know seemingly everything from her job to the places she’d go. Apparently she frequented the Andaman Islands around this time, not an area of the world you’d expect to trace someone to.
I am my father’s image at the same age, except I’m a few inches taller.
They owned a home, car, boat and had two children on one income and no degree. Their health insurance covered everything 100% for the whole family. They went out every weekend and living in Florida, theme parks were the norm.
I bought and moved into an RV after the realization that a house is complete fantasy. I never wanted kids but even if I did it’s out of the question. I silently stress out every time my gf wants us to go to a restaurant because a $15 meal feels like an awful lot right now. My cat is pretty awesome though.
Well, I’m almost 50, so I was an adult fully my the time my dad hit that mark, and my mom is seven years younger than him.
I actually know a shit ton about both of them at that age, more than they realize. Small town, and the nearest bigger towns are places I’ve worked, and I know a lot of people in the nearest city. So they got up to some things that they don’t know I know lol.
They were divorced by that time range, though my mom didn’t move out immediately. I had moved back in at that point as well, and tended to not be home much just to avoid each other more. This was before I bought the house (family home going back a good ways), and my mom moved out not long after she hit 50, to take care of her aunt in her late stage Alzheimer’s.
Anyway, the area we live in is pretty rural, fairly low population. You really can’t stay in the county and hope to keep things private. With me having been all over the tri-county area between working in home health, and bouncing in the city at some surprising places they didn’t know about, I would hear stories within a day or two. Maybe not the nitty gritty details of all of it, but enough.
Thing is, for similar reasons (everyone knowing everyone in the area), I’ve always had a fairly good idea of what my parents were like at various ages. My dad’s stint in the Army is a section that I only know about from what he’s said, and my mom’s teenage years were a bit murky because she was a navy brat and stayed off the radar of her parents, so all I have is her stories and my aunt’s.
But the rest? I was either there, or know someone that was lol.
My mother gave birth to me at the age I am today. I too don’t really know much of what was going on in their lives outside of their interactions with us kids.
