MetaChat - Ever feel like you're turning into your parent(s)?

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

28 August 2006

Ever feel like you're turning into your parent(s)? →[More:]I realized recently that I have a tendency to talk rather loudly on occasion -- just like my mom. And I've long had a tendency to sound authoritative even when I'm pulling something out of my ass -- just like my dad. What traits do you have that you inherited from your parents?

post by: me3dia at: 10:34 | 22 comments

Also, this great New Yorker cartoon:
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by me3dia 28 August | 10:34

What traits do you have that you inherited from your parents?

Griping at people who can't hear me (drivers, people on TV), smoking, putting too much salt & pepper on my food, and an inability to cough or sneeze just once, all from Dad.

posted by jonmc 28 August | 10:37

Off my lawn, damnit.

posted by trondant 28 August | 10:40

Ever feel like you're turning into your parent(s)?

To answer your original question though, no. I occasionally feel like I'm turning into other people's relatives. Just last week, I felt myself turning into my friend Eddie's cousin, a 42-year old Puerto Rican woman.

posted by jonmc 28 August | 10:46

The way I say things = my Mom
When I'm angry = my Dad

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 August | 10:47

I think I've always had my mother's vocal and physical mannerisms, so that's been there for a while. It does scare me lately to realize how much like my father I am emotionally and intellectually, though -- which explains why my mother was always confused when people told her that she and I were so alike. It's like I'm her on the outside, him on the inside sometimes.

Which means... stubborn as all get-out, basically.

posted by occhiblu 28 August | 10:51

Realizing how much I was like my father really helped me learn to cut him a lot more slack.

posted by matildaben 28 August | 10:52

A lot of things, but here's a fun one: My parents laugh a lot, and I've definitely inherited that... But also, my dad has this one laugh that isn't really a laugh. It really means "You're an idiot!" And my mom has one that really means "I'm so embarrassed for you."

I think I inherited both of those. You can imagine the faux hilarity when as a family we meet really stupid people acting badly.

posted by taz 28 August | 10:58

Yep, matildaben. I've been in the of that one for the last few years.

posted by occhiblu 28 August | 10:58

I'm turning into me3dia's parents, it seems.

posted by eamondaly 28 August | 10:59

At my age my parents had been married 9 years, were running a farm and raising six kids (three biological, three fostered), and spent a lot of time attending/working in their church, and had never attended university. So no, as I am single, childless, city dwelling, a professional and an agnostic, I don't feel that much like them. My life simply does not resemble theirs in any respect and it's made a different person of me.

posted by Orange Swan 28 August | 11:00

I definitely worry too much like my mom (both my moms). And overreact to little things like my dad (he'd go ballistic if the ice cube trays were too full).

I also have my father's calves. *sigh*

posted by Pips 28 August | 11:43

Just physically. Or not even my parents, but my bros and sissses. Looking more like a (last name) every day.

posted by rainbaby 28 August | 11:47

I have my mother's wiseass sense of humor as well as her desire to have things "just so."

posted by JanetLand 28 August | 12:34

I'm developing my father's extremely low tolerance for the hopelessly stupid. I'm not sure if it's from my father or from 15 years of tech support though.

posted by Mitheral 28 August | 12:35

Do you guys remember that show Family Ties? I am the female version of an Alex P. Keaton. My parents were (expletive deleted) hippies.

posted by getoffmylawn 28 August | 13:14

I am unfortunately very much like my mother. Wandering minds, rampant obsessions, buckets of fervor, bossy, unpleasant.... yeah very much. This is actually why we don't speak anymore, our arguments would just go in circles for hours...

One of the good things about being like my mom is that my obsessive tendencies work well when doing research. I really wish I had ended up with her unflappable self confidence tho. Or her looks....gurgggg

I don't really know my dad much so I can't say I'm anything like him...

this post just semi-depressed me...

posted by Mrs.Pants 28 August | 13:17

Dad: I have a tendency to "yeah yeah yeah get to the point" through long-winded stories and I can't fake being interested if I'm not to save my life

Mom: she has this weird cackle that I fear that I am inheriting. I have also started photographing icicles in the wintertime, like we made fun of her for doing for decades.

posted by jessamyn 28 August | 16:46

The older I get,the more I hear my mom's voice and inflections come out when I open my mouth. We are so alike, it would drive my brother crazy. We are both people-persons, generally helpful to strangers, can make friends standing in line. Not a bad thing, in my opinion.

My brother, on the other hand, has more of our father's traits. He hates that fact.

posted by redvixen 28 August | 18:03

Mrs. Pants you are hott don't deny it!

I like to organize things which I got from my dad. I write like my mom sometimes, the kind of writing all Chinese people seem to have. If you ever get a wholesale shipment from China and there's writing on the side... I write like that.

I am also stubborn and analytical like both my parents and I don't talk to either of them anymore.

posted by halonine 28 August | 18:54

I have almost always been very much like my mother: mannerisms, opinions, inability to sleep more than three hours a night, except we have never looked anything alike. The most noticeable ways I'm like my father are a fondness for whiskey and an ability to go four days without saying a word to anyone.

But I've always felt at least a little bit like my parents, so it never seemed odd to see either of them in the way I was behaving.

posted by crush-onastick 28 August | 21:16

halonine! i know EXACTLY what you mean about the handwriting! I don't write that way but both my mother and father and all their friends (korean folk) do.... odd

posted by Mrs.Pants 29 August | 09:35

← Bump: Thank you for the bday wishes || Happy birthday, ikkyu2! →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN