I Learned It By Watching You!

 I believe it is a universal fear that we will one day become our parents and that their quirks will become our very own. This "fear" has turned into a reality. I have become my mother and to a degree my dad as well.

I used to be so embarrassed by my mom's over sharing and long conversations with strangers. Her willingness to take on every project and party and accomplish it with what appeared to be minimal effort. My mothers ability to get great customer service and items for free through her humor and civility must have seeped into my brain or possibly it's part of my DNA.

I find myself over-sharing all the time - "I am buying all of these Hershey kisses because I am making 6 dozen cookies..." or "Yeah a girl needs her diet coke..." or whatever. I am assuming that people don't really care, but I can't help myself from talking to strangers and involving them in my life if only for a moment. I have found that people remember me and treat me well on future visits and I also receive free items or discounts on items all the time. I know that my sisters have this same disease of over-sharing. We can't help
 ourselves. I don't know about my brothers. We need to discuss it the next time we are together for sure.


I also teach (church) similar to my mom and dad as well. Through what I hope is spirituality mixed with humor. I also say what I think and don't always keep my opinions to myself. This usually serves me well and I learned it by observing my parents. (More my mom - my dad has a bit more decorum and knows when his opinion will not be welcome - Ha)

I was never embarrassed by our fabulous parties my mom threw for us kids whether as our room mother or for our birthdays and our weddings. I find myself organizing and decorating for parties as my mom might. I was recently in charge of a Relief Society (Women's Organization) dinner and it was super fun and turned out great. Not everyone would go to the effort I did for a church party. But I learned from my mother the importance of doing your best. It's helpful that she lives close enough that I can borrow things as well.

So in short - don't fear becoming your parents. Embrace it! I am luckier than most as my parents are pretty awesome so it isn't much of a hardship. Hopefully, I will embarrass and teach Bailey to follow in my footsteps.