What is the most important contribution your parents have made to you?

[Orgirl1969]

What is the most important contribution or contributions you feel your parents have made to your life? What role did they play in defining what kind of person you are today? Reasons or explanations?

[CarlosHoney]

My mom was always straightforward with all of us. Never lied to us about sex, drugs, etc.. And taught us to be responsible for our actions. :grinhappy:

[MOB Karen]

I love my parents very much, but they raised us to believe that men were superior to women. That white people were better than any other race. That Democrats were liberal commie pinko's.

I think I married a black man to spite my parents. Maybe I did it, to see if they would actually disown me like they had always told me they would. They did end up disowning me for it, and they didn't even meet my children until my son was almost four and Amber was almost two years old.

In my family, there was no such thing as unconditional love. It was, "if you do this and this, then I will love you." If not, then you can go away and never come back."

I think the best thing that could have happened to me, was to get out of that house as soon as possible. I turned out ok, but the issues left behind are overwhelming sometimes.

I don't care who or what my children want to marry. I will love them, support them, and stand by them no matter what. That's what I learned from my parents. :snide:

[Orgirl1969]

Whoops. How do I delete a poll? I seemed to have posted this twice!

[MOB Karen]

Whoops. How do I delete a poll? I seemed to have posted this twice!

I deleted it for you. :)

[Orgirl1969]

Thank you...I feel like an idiot!

[MOB Karen]

Thank you...I feel like an idiot!

No biggie! We've all done it once or twice. It's easily fixable. :smile:

[Orgirl1969]

The positives: A good work ethic, the confidence to be able to take care of myself (with or without a man in my life), self-reliance and a good set of morals and values. They also taught me concern and compassion for others and a strong sense of family.

The negatives: I know my parents love me, but I hardly ever heard the words in my own home. I don't think I've ever heard my father actually say, "I love you." My children hear it every day, usually several times. If something happened to me, or to them, I think it's important that they never question how I feel about them. Sometimes the best things we learn from our upbringing is how not to raise our own kids.

[Jenn060306]

My parents gave me the strength and allowed me to fly on my own. They were always there to pick me back up and brush me off.
My mom and i are very close and she's taught me how to get through the tough times and look on the bright side of life. I admire her for that. She was very caring and helped me with all my health problems.
My dad and i arn't extremely close. After my brother passed away he back off and with drew himself from me. It was tough, but i learned that no matter what happends i won't do that to my family. Him and i are close know and he's tought me alot about getting things accomplished and been very helpful with planning my life with MArk and looking down the road.

[WebLady]

Lets see ...

Well when I was younger I remember my mom always told us that we could do whatever we put our minds to. But as I grew she never really supported us in much of anything. They told us they loved us, but tried too hard to 'shelter' us I think.

When my brothers were born it got worse, they were both sick alot and I had to help with them alot. When they grew they were allowed to do much more that my sister and I ever were and they got pretty much anything they wanted.

Mom and Dad faught alot and when Mom got mad she said hurtful things to us. Then when she got really mad and got dad involved he said things too.

I didn't have a great childhood but I know it could have been worse. Even in all the issues I know my parents love me, but they didn't always show (and my mom still doesn't) the unconditional love and support that I think parents should.

Now as an adult, I have tried to take my experiences and learn to be a better person from them. It has taken me many ups and downs to get to where I am today, but for the most part I am proud of the person I am today. So I thank my parents for the role they played in making me that person.

[LaceyinPgh]

My parents were fabulous. They did everything that a parent is supposed to do. They raised me, took care of me, and made sure my needs were met. They taught me responsibilty. They taught me independences (a little too well.). They taught me self assuredness. They supported my choices and the decisions that I made. They taught me to never judge. The instilled the value of opinions and education in me. They taught me that I could do, be, or have anything that I wanted if I just applied myself. They taught me that I never had to settle for second best. They paid for almost all of my schooling. They even bought me my first car so I wouldn't start out life in any debt. They were as perfect as parents can be. I love them both dearly.

There were a few cons. I was an only child so they spoiled me horribly. I was brought up to be very materialistic because of this. My mother felt that only the best was good enough for her and that was how it was going to be for her daughter as well. (Of course my dad had a huge hand in this too.) Being an only child (and grandchild for most of my life) I was also given a sense of self entitlement. I could do or say anything that I wanted and people were just going to have to learn to deal with it because, I was Lacey. If someone didn't like it, they could leave. Regardless to say, I was quite the brat growing up. Alot of that, I feel, really helped to make me so outspoken and fearless when it came to dealing with other poeple in soceity. So, something that was sort of good came out from it. My parents were also incredibly protective (the only child thing) so, when I finally got out from under their wing, I FULLY enjoyed it to an extreme extent.

In all though, I am very greatful for my parents. They really did a fabulous job raising me. I was very lucky to have such supportive and wonderful people in my life.