A horrifying prospect

[breathedout]

As I am preparing for my parents' upcoming visit (after our actual Christmas, which will be spent elsewhere), I keep remembering this exchange I had with my mother when I was six or seven.

Me: "Why are you cleaning more than usual? Don't you want Tutu and Grandad to get a picture of how we normally live?"

My mother, RIGHTFULLY AGHAST: "Honey. No. No!!"

Poor Mom.

This is not to imply that we normally lived in a horrible shambles, just that I now understand that the goal of this behavior is not to open one's habitat to anthropological field research, but to present one's life in its best light so that one's parents will (pick all that apply) (a) not worry, (b) be impressed with one's functional lifestyle, (c) get off one's back.

Comments

[anelith]

The thing about wanting your parents to NOT WORRY is very real.

[breathedout]

Yes! And as a kid, my parents seemed so authoritative and together; I never could have wrapped my brain around the idea that my grandparents might worry about them, or that they might want to prevent that worrying.

[chestnut_pod]

Absolutely! Especially the weaponized worrying.

[greywash]

I feel weirdly obsessively self-conscious about how we don't have a table????? CIVILIZED. ADULT. HUMANS. EAT FOOD OFF A TABLE, but noooooo, not us. *covers face, peers over at you* Tell them we're going to get a table...

[breathedout]

I mean in our defense I feel like it's pretty obvious that the reason we don't have a table is that there is no room for one in the apartment, buuuuut also yes, life with one will feel more adult for sure. (Also: excellent use of your anxious Alice icon, LOL)

[sylvaine]

This is the most relatable feeling /o\ ONE DAY I will have a place big enough to allow for a table! Will I then feel like a real adult? I hope so, because it's certainly not happening before xD

[breathedout]

I know, right? greywash and I actually did have a table for a while there, but we got rid of it a few moves ago and haven't had room to replace it. For a long time I didn't really miss it, but occasionally now I find myself thinking it would be nice to actually sit down across from one another and have dinner.

[teaforlupin]

Lololol XD

[sylvaine]

*delighted giggling*

[clarasteam]

*hoots in sympathy*

[aphilologicalbatman]

I got home last night and discovered that my mother in law has rearranged the apartment and my partner let piles of boxes accrue and my parents arrive in less than 24 hours. this is all just to say that I have never related so intensely to a post in my life.

[breathedout]

Oh man, YIKES, good luck sorting all that out!!