metaphortunate: (Default)
metaphortunate son ([personal profile] metaphortunate) wrote2015-11-05 10:23 pm

do as I say, Part II-A

Okay, here's a thing.

The conversation I wrote about yesterday? I know it's wrong. I mean, I have an ear for this, I know that it's funny. But I honestly don't 100% know exactly why.

I mean, it's ironic that my mom is bugging me to break a habit that she has absolutely no intention of breaking herself, right? But is that any worse than me telling my kid to relax and get some sleep when I know there's no chance I'll be doing it myself? And I know what would happen if I told my mom to lay off my coffee habit if she's not going to kick her own, because I've had this conversation before. She would say, with perfect sincerity, that my health and wellbeing are much more important to her than her own.

Which is true. I don't talk about it much, because it's not funny, or cute, or some traumatic shit that I have to work through, which are the main reasons why I talk about my family. It's just been a constant source of support in my life: I have always had parents who care deeply about my health and wellbeing, yea, even above their own. How lucky am I. And if they're sometimes spectacularly bad at figuring out how to support that goal; well, sometimes they're not. They did get a number of things right. And I wouldn't be doing nearly as well as I am without all the love and help they gave me throughout my life, for sure.

But, it's still kind of fucked up to not be able to drink tea for breakfast in your own house without being confronted with how disappointing it is that you haven't reached a goal that you weren't trying for and aren't interested in, right?

There's still something fucked up about caring so much about someone else's health and happiness that you push them to do shit in pursuit of it that is way too hard or tedious or unpleasant to do yourself, right?

I really want to know what exactly the problem is. What is the funny part? What is the fucked up part? Because I know something is wrong, but I don't know what it is, and if I don't know what it is, how am I going to avoid doing it myself?
rosefox: Green books on library shelves. (Default)

[personal profile] rosefox 2015-11-06 07:04 am (UTC)(link)
Neither conversational transcript shows the part where the child asked the parent for assistance, support, or reassurance. But I'm pretty sure that part existed in your conversation with your kid about being anxious, and I'm pretty sure it didn't exist in your conversation with your mom about hot beverages.
rosefox: Green books on library shelves. (Default)

[personal profile] rosefox 2015-11-06 07:09 am (UTC)(link)
That would absolutely be the equivalent of your mom with the coffee! "Here, let me offload my neurosis onto you! I feel better now!" "...thanks..."
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)

[personal profile] azurelunatic 2015-11-06 08:10 am (UTC)(link)
Have I waxed poetic to you about my love for the Non-Reassuring Letter Home as a genre? I feel that you might appreciate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzErh_s62Wk

"Dear Mama, not much to tell you about this week, the stitches came out yesterday and the cut's hardly infected at all. How's the weather up there?"
ironed_orchid: watercolour and pen style sketch of a brown tabby cat curl up with her head looking up at the viewer and her front paw stretched out on the left (Default)

[personal profile] ironed_orchid 2015-11-07 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh man. I just got flash backs to letters from my Nana where she would casually alip in a line about breaking her erist playing badmington.