Growing up I was adamant that I would never turn into my parents and I am here telling all of you (or no one, not totally sure who is reading this)that I am slowly turning into them. Some of you might say quickly, some of you might say it happened a long time ago, but I'm sticking with slowly. It's like peeling off a band aid.
I find myself with an increasing need to insert myself in stranger's conversations because I KNOW that the information I have to add is vital and they will not survive without it. This was one of, if not THE, most embarrassing things that my mom did/does and I fight the urge to do it all the time.
When I was around eight years old, we were pulling out of a parking lot next to another car and my mom rolled down the window and started yelling to the other driver "Put your kid in a seat belt." I was so mortified that I wanted to fling myself into the other car and take my chances with the driver who in my mother's mind, by not putting his child in a seat belt, was akin to a serial killer. Now I look back, and say "Go Mom!" Interestingly, I don't remember what happened next, I only remember the embarrassing part. I'd like to think he pulled over, put a seat belt on the kid and always remembered the kindness of a stranger. It's more likely that he flipped off my mom, recklessly pulled out into traffic and then bred a plethora of seat belt averse children.
I am different from my mom. I would never do what she did, BUT I would roll my eyes, grumble under my breath and then turn around and have a discussion with Zoe about the importance of wearing your seat belt. I learned from these experiences.
Buying precut fruit, you know in trays or little containers, is just about the worst thing you can do in my mother's eyes. She (with a little help from her trusty sidekick Marta) spends hours cutting fruits and vegetables for parties when you can very easily, and in under 5 minutes, purchase all the cut items you need. Growing up this was discussed at great length in our house, particularly when we became old enough to be required to help with the peeling and cutting. We accused her of being cheap, mean, basically any adjective that could possibly apply, but she didn't care. "There is no reason to spend that much money when it looks nicer to do it yourself."
This leads me to last week. I was at Whole Foods with my brother. He wanted to buy fruit, so he ran off while I was in line and came back with a container of watermelon and a container of cantaloupe. Okay, in all fairness to me, we were at Whole Foods, which is ridiculously expensive, and he had picked two of the cheapest fruits you can buy. So each of those containers were about $15.00 and I calmly looked at my brother and said, "You can make fun of me, you can call me Mom, but there is not a chance in the world that we are buying those." He rolled his eyes at me, but went and got the whole fruit to cut up. Then he reminded me that my dad had given us money, so it wasn't like we were paying for it. Then I reminded him of the most important part, I got to keep the change. Our reasoning may be different, but the idea is the same.
That's my girl.........
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