I recently noticed that I’ve turned into my father. Is this happening to anyone else?
-I look forward to mowing the lawn. -I wait to watch the garbagemen take the trash each week to make sure they get everything. -I get worked up when I see strangers walking near my lawn because preserving the perfect nature of my grass has become more important than people. -I don’t like people. -I don’t like talking to people. -When forced to talk to new people, the only conversation topic that excites me is the weather. -I wake up in the middle of the night. -I wake up in the middle of the night and check the thermostat to make sure that no one has increased the heat. -The heating bill causes me stress. -When it rains, I go down to the basement to make sure that nothing is flooding. -I’m using the exact same expressions as my father. -I fall asleep at 8:30pm watching Law & Order reruns. -I fall asleep at restaurants. -I fall asleep at friends’ houses, sometimes while friends are talking to me. -When other people fly, I like to log onto the web and watch their flight updates online. -Driving to the store has become a major episode. -I drive below the speed limit. -On long road trips, I drive above the speed limit because the most important thing is getting between two places in record time. -On long road trips, I hate stopping. -We look exactly alike.
Your dad…
Your dad used to scare me.
Don’t be scary.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Hmmm
I wonder how much of it is becoming your father and how much of it is getting older?
That much being said, wait until you have childrens. The things that will come out of your mouth to them will remove any uncertainty you may still have about becoming your father.
Speaking of fathers, my wife and I are thinking about having a third child. I told her if it’s a boy she could have her way and name him Luke. My reasoning being (and I swear on Gus, Sam’s old station wagon, this is true) that I can have a lifetime of saying “Luke, I am your father”.
I will be the worst embarassment to my children ever.
My $.02 Weed
“Luke, I am your father.”
Wow. That’s even better than a friend of mine (last name of Wiseman) who insists he and his wife only had a kid so they can make dinner reservations for “Wiseman, party of three”. 😉
Funniest line ever!
OK, that’s this week’s “funniest line ever” for me! What a riot!
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Kids,….
I find myself turning into my father especially when i deal with my kids. The statements that come out of my mouth sometimes scare even me…
I find that the things that never annoyed before, now are the same things that I harp on my kids about. Clean up your toys, pick up your shoes, etc.)
Wait a minute
Those things (picking up toys, shoes, etc) are more because of my wife than my morphing into my father.
If you don’t clean up your room and pick up your toys, then my wife will get mad, which will negatively affect me around the house, ergo you BETTER CLEAN UP THIS ROOM!
My $.02 Weed
I don’t like people, either
These comments really resonated with me, Sam. Probably because I agree with them so completely. We don’t go to a lot of parties anymore, so I don’t find myself falling asleep at parties, but just last night Lisa and I both were dozing off while making a concerted effort to watch Troy on HBO.
And since I’ve always looked like my father, and have his name (thus the ‘Jr’), and live in the same county with people that know us both and often get us confused, I can say sometimes actually play the part of my father and get away with it. Helps getting a good table at restaurants.
And mowing the lawn – it’s like two hours of quiet time. I love mowing the lawn. I found a few weeks ago how much I liked putting up the outdoor decorations for the holidays – it was quiet, no one bothered me, and I could talk to myself without interruption.
I’ll second what others here have said about the next set of evolutions – children. You do find yourself promising that you won’t be ‘that dad’ (referring either to your own father or to those you most want to avoid becoming.) And then, because of circumstances, you realize that, only after you’ve instinctively said something contrary to your promise, you have to say to yourself ‘man, I’m becoming my father…’
Frankly, I’ll be thankful if I evolve into my father. A successful career lawyer and educator, he’s run for public office and devoted who-knows-how-many hours to community service; he’s put me through college and now gets to dote on his grandkids; and he and Mom just moved into the biggest house they’ve ever owned in their lives. If that’s what I can look forward to, thanks to whatever of him rubbed off on me, well, that’s not so bad.
And with that, I’ll wish you all a happy holidays.
Yes, More like him everyday, and mom, too.
As a child, I looked like my father. I find that I tend to have a lot of the same personality characteristics as my dad. YIKES. Sometimes it’s quite funny. Other times I have to make a consious effort to choose how I’m going to act.
In turn, I also am more like my mom every day. Somedays I wonder if her mind took over my body. I sound exactly like her. If she’s visiting and she answers my phone, they start a conversation with her thinking that it’s me. The creepy thing is to see that my daughter is following in the exact same footsteps. She’s 10 now and looks 13. She also sounds exactly like me.
So here’s a couple of the funny things that I think that reminds me so very much of my dad:
In traffic–“Gas pedal’s on the right.” “Horn works, wonder if the driver does.” At home with the kids–“Were you born in a barn? Close the door.”
I can’t recall them all. I’ll have to add some later. But I’m stubborn like my dad and I recline in a chair just like him with my arm resting behind my head.
Unlike my dad, I do still like social situations. But I have found that I prefer to be with people we’re close friends with. We do tend to stick with our circle of friends much more than we used to. I guess it helps that we’ve been in one place long enough to have developed a circle of friends!
But when all is said and done, I try to remember that I don’t have to be mom or dad. I get to be me! —
Christy