And if you have kids, how well do you know them?


When you were growing up, did you parents know what you liked and didn't, and what you were into and in general what you were like? And even when you grew up, how much did they know about you?


My mother knew me very well...until I turned 10, but through the years she's still known a lot about me and what I liked and didn't, and she still does. My father...well he knew I was alive...I think, and that was and is the extent of that.

How about everyone else? If you have kids, do you make a point of knowing what they like, what their favorite things are, etc?

They knew the big picture, but there were small, random things they were completely clueless about, and at the time I preferred it that way.

They didn't know me at all. But I can't say they ever really tried either.

As far as my own, I think I know them pretty well. But I believe that comes from learning from my parents mistakes or indifference. It took a while for me to actually become an adult having been so emotionally & spiritually handicapped from the screwy upbringing. But once that happened, I didn't want them to feel the same way I had growing up. So I've worked hard at trying to be in touch with who they are & what they like.

I was stranded here from another planet and somehow was raised by a girl who knew nothing about raising an inquisitive, authority-challenging nerd.

My mom actually told me, "why can't you just be popular, like other boys?"

She was upset because when I exhaused all my fine art credits and had to take a practical art in HS, I took typing instead of shop or mechanical drawing. Mostly girls in that class - my mom had sexual identity problems with me.

My grades were average except for art and I aced biology because it interested me. Of course my mother was concerned that there was no practical application to biology unless you went into some scientific field.

I was a very quiet self-occupied child and my mom never had a clue what I was up to.

But, combining art and biology, she didn't know that I killed off a bunch of wasps with fire, then took the nest and put it in a jar to let all the other wasps hatch so I could kill them and mount them on the nest in a realistic wasp nest display for my bug collection. Or that I had a live black widow spider in a jar - eventually part of my collection.

She didn't know I was recreating a science demonstration using 110 AC current instead of batteries. Or that I made an arc light out of two graphite pencils, again using house current. Well she did know about the home brew when a bottle blew up in the middle of the night and the whole house smelled like a brewery. She made me stop the brewing.

Anyhow, don't know if anyone could have done any better with me.

Growing up they didn't know much about me and at the time I was simultaneously glad and resentful of the fact.

Mine don't know me well because I put up a wall to protect myself from them.

I hope that I know my children, I am doing my best to know all of them and what they like and care about.

Well they know where my birthmark is, how old I was when I stopped wetting the bed and have original copies of my birth certificate and high school diploma....around here that's good parenting.

Growing up, they knew quite a few fragmented aspects of my personality eerily well, but they definitely didn't know all of me, and still don't.

Chris wrote:

Growing up, they knew quite a few fragmented aspects of my personality eerily well, but they definitely didn't know all of me, and still don't.

I don't think any parent ever knows ALL about their kid, especially when they enter adolescence and are looking for a life apart from them.

My Mama knew more about me, my father knows very little about me but overall they just knew what they needed to know.

They know enough.

If they don't know me by now, they will never, never, never know me.

They didn't know me as a kid, or an adult. It makes me sad that Dad never takes an interest now to see what I like or enjoy, but it is what it is. He is much better with my son than me, and that is just fine.

I will never make the mistake with my son to not know what he likes or is into.

Impact wrote:

If they don't know me by now, they will never, never, never know me.