“The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet.”
Yesterday’s breeze must have worn itself out as today is already warm and nothing is moving, not a leaf, not a skinny branch. I was on the deck with my papers and coffee, came in to muse and found the den refreshingly dark and cool.
I woke up earlier than usual this morning roused by the sounds of the street cleaner with its brushes and beeps while it went up one side then down the other of my small street. Neatness counts but not that early.
My mother and father had stock questions, threats, answers and sayings for almost any occasion. “I’ll give you something to cry about,” was one of my father’s threats when I was in tears over something he considered trivial. We’d bring something neat home, and my mother would toss it. “You don’t know where it’s been,” was her reason. I never understood her need for provenance. My parents were big on ultimatums. “I’m not going to tell you one more time,” was never to be ignored if we wanted to escape retribution. “What do you think you’re doing,” wasn’t really the question I thought it was. Neither was the very famous, “How many times to I have to tell you?” I learned the hard way it had nothing to do with an actual number.
Parental rhetoricals were sometimes difficult to interpret. I was torn between answering and not answering. Most times I answered. “Are you talking back?” generally followed my responses. “Because I said so,” never carried much weight with me. I wanted logic and rationale, but my parents seldom obliged. “Didn’t I warn you?” was an all purpose parental rhetorical for anything from getting a sunburn to being humiliated. I remember suffering through a cold because I ignored my mother’s advice about a hat. “Just wait until your father gets home, ” was a universal heard throughout our neighborhood. It was always scary.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
May 26, 2010 at 10:50 am
Another day in the 90’s here, Kat. 90’s in May in NH is just not right. We had to put the ac’s in the other day.
Weird. I drove by a street cleaner on my way to work this morning. Cleaning up the road by the beach on the lake.
Parents do love their quiet. This would be a day when my mother would say, “why are you hanging around the house? Go outside!” and I’d be gone until dinner.
May 26, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Erin,
It never got that hot here, and the breeze showed up in the afternoon, but it was still hot for the Cape in May.
My mother sent us outside too, even if we were quiet.
May 26, 2010 at 1:36 pm
When I made a face at something my mother or father would say, my mother would warn me that my face would “freeze” and I would have that nasty expression forever! LOL Another favorite…”This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you!” NOPE…not by a long shot. Of course, once I was a mother of four, I understood why parents come up with these statements. It all came clearer then.
May 27, 2010 at 9:10 am
Rita,
My mother too had the warning about my face freezing, especially when I was given to pouting. I always believed her. After all, mothers didn’t lie. Later, of course, I realized that white lies are a parents stock in trade.
I never got the hurt me more speech. I would have snorted at that one.
May 26, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Parents threats seemes to have been the same all over the world 🙂
I´m back more or less now. My new computor and I have a mutual feeling of hate towards each other at the moment, but i will win!! 🙂 🙂 At least I hope so 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
May 26, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Christer,
Welcome back!! I really missed your visits and I missed dropping over to Cranelake.
I know people will be smarter than I, but I refuse to have a machine take advantage. You’ll conquer it.
May 26, 2010 at 4:19 pm
“I’m not going to tell you again” was heard often. You got a typo on the one parent phrase I heard most often in the post. Can’t go back and copy it on this wordpress. Forgot to copy it before I got here. Must be a senior moment. But I enjoyed the post. I think both our parents came off the same production line.
May 26, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Z&Me,
Thanks, I went back and added the missing word.
I always believed that parents were given a handbook with all the lines. I’m betting they were heard in all languages.