What kind of parents did you have growing up?

My people are the Poplar Bluff Fraziers. Of course, my mother was a Hogg.

My parents were kind of lgbt-adjacent but blind to it in themselves. My dad was kind of sensitive and not especially masculine, my mom tall and kinda soft-butch.. they met and married and had 2 kids because that was what one did. They did a good job but have admitted in subtle ways, much later on, that they didn’t feel especially desirous of becoming parents.

I honestly think if they were born in the 1990s they would not have become a hetero couple with two children. They might not have become hetero at all.

Two lovely and intelligent people who were somewhat denied of fulfilling their dreams (my father of going to a good college, my mother of owning a dress shop). Between the Depression and World War II there were parental deaths, then popping out Baby Boom kids after the war. They were valiant people whom I loved and remember fondly every day.

College educated and well to do. WASPs. Old Virginia families on both sides.

Blue collar first generation Americans. Both were highly intelligent but got indifferent educations up to the high school senior level. I was the first of my cousins to go to college, and from my elementary school on, I was groomed to go to college with an eye to getting a white collar job in an office. Which I did.

Extremely hands off.

My father never finished college, my mother earned her BA in psychology (never used it). She was a very adept seamstress and did manage to make a decent living at one time with that knowledge and skill.

Immigrant family. They were very forward thinking, broad minded people! My father was a "failed" entrepreneur, my mother went along with his hair-brained schemes. Despite their outwardly "failures", my brother and I were very luck to have good, decent, loving and kind people as our parents.

Even when they couldn't affort to, they would try and help out people who were worse off. What they lacked in financial success, they mad up for it by the bushel in love, attention and humor. We never had money for vacations or fancy things, but somehow there was always money for Christmas, birthday parties and good food! We loved to eat and joke around. They gave us very nice childhoods with a focus on the really important things (i.e. not material things).

My father was a funny guy, always cracking jokes and always the life of any party. My mother was more reserved (a bit classier), but good people! I hope at the end of my days people will say that I had the best qualities of both my folks. Gosh, I miss them.

Both very kind, personable, and very intelligent. My Dad was a very successful and somewhat prominent attorney. My Mom had advanced degrees, who was one of the first women in her position at a well known, international company. She taught after her children were older.

My Dad was always interested in what you were doing. He had a million stories and regaled one and all with them. He was always very welcoming to all.

My Mom was lovely, a kind and compassionate woman, who was fiercely supportive of her children.

I guess you could say I had an upper middle class upbringing.

I miss my parents to this day and think about them every day!

Do I really have to say?

Blue collar/working class. Dad graduated high school. My mother was one of 8 children, 2 had a disability and her father was an alcoholic so he left school at 15 to start working. They were/are nice people. Very empathetic, Catholic culturally but agnostic, very street smart. We never heard them make a racist or bigoted remark. Because they didn't have an education or a fancy job, their love was totally unconditional. They didn't expect us to be anything. I guess some people may take issue with that and prefer parents who pushed them but the older I get the more I appreciate their lack of expectations. I've been laid off, I've quit jobs, I've been broke, I've worked crap jobs and I never feared their reaction.

Divorced.

Shlutsh.

My mom was a Madame Claude girl in Paris. My dad was her American client. They took things past “working” hours, ended up falling in love, and got married. This was all revealed decades later in a very dramatic family scandale of epic proportions.

Still, she was an exceptionally sophisticated and cultured woman. To work for Madame Claude, you had to be. My dad was an architect who was somewhat celebrated in his time. She was a gentile, he was Jewish. They were, and still are, wonderful parents.

My father was a minister. He also sold alcohol on the side. My mother was a performer. I and my mother would tour in wagon of a travelling show, where I was born. She was a dancer.

I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag

OP You're just like my mother, she's never satisfied.

Crazy. I lived with my grandparents.

You know parents are the same No matter time nor place They don't understand that us kids Are gonna make some mistakes So to you, all the kids all across the land There's no need to argue Parents just don't understand

First generation. My mom's parents were from Sicily and dad's were from Portugal. I grew up in a trilingual home (which now I'm very thankful for) . Mom was a practical artist working for Hasbro (back in the day they employed artists for design and painting toys), my dad was a machinist. We were lower middle class. Always had enough, but never anything extra. But a lot of love and acceptance and support to do whatever we wanted to do. My dad was pretty smart, was a Korean war veteran. He was also a musician and played in clubs on the weekends. He loved everyone he met and was joyful and even tempered. My mom used to sneak me in to see him - it was neat - then he would bring home food (Chinese or Greek) at 2am or so and wake me and my sister up and we would sit around the table and eat and talk.....they both wrote songs for each other and us and would sing them. It was a beautiful loving home filled with music and laughter. Being gay was not even a small issue for them. They had gay friends and were very nonjudgemental. They judged people by the size of their heart and the strength of their character. I feel very lucky.

Both PhDs. My father grew up poor in Appalachia, his bachelor's degree was courtesy of the G.I. Bill when he returned from Vietnam; his older sister was the first college graduate in their extended family, and both of his brothers were career military. My mother grew up comfortably on the West Coast - her father owned real estate; her older sisters married right out of high school. My mother was expected to be a housewife like her sisters; she was the first college graduate in her family.

10th and 12th grade education, working class but too “rich” for free lunch. Outside of a large city and only dad worked but a job and a half. This was 90s/2000s. I feel my upbringing is becoming a relic, as you don’t see very many white kids raised in urban adjacent areas with liberal parents. Most of these folks fled for the boonies and became MAGAts. But lo abd behold my parents now live in the city city, and are very liberal. It was accepting but at times little guidance how to do things the right way (plan for college, retirement, how to be physically fit).

R21 by relic I meant poor white parents. Mine were far from yuppies.

Warmth, love,acceptance, and 'let live.' With music. Sounds wonderful R19

Midgets.

My parents were the Silent Generation, my dad was in the Korean war. They were religious and strict yet we had the kind of free range parenting where in the summer my brothers and I would be outside all day and they didn't know where we were.

I got away with the most because I was the youngest and by that time they were worn out and loosened up a bit. Also my father started making good money by the time I was a teenager, my dad was blue collar but ended up owning his own company and made a lot of money.

Mom was a housewife, involved in our schools and church activities, back then we spent 3 days a week at church.

I hid a lot of my life from my parents, I love them very much but if I wasn't their son we probably wouldn't have much in common. I do know they love me but sometimes feel they are not as proud of me as my more successful (and straight) brothers.

My parents left school at 14 (Father) and 13 (Mother). They knew they had to work and just got on with it. Both were clever in complementary ways. Dad was a builder with elegant problem solving ability, Mum innately musical and really devoted to a type of "domestic science " who after being at home with children went back to work as a tea lady. They could both have had different lives if chances had presented themselves, but as children of the depression opportunities were not present. Both had fantastic senses of humour. I did go to university which could have caused a rift between us but didn't. We would all happily sit and talk about things with a straight forward intellect. I learnt how to be content with what you could achieve, not to be jealous of those with other opportunities, and judge people only by their generosity and goodness. How I miss them.

Authoritarian. My way or the highway.

My father grew up on a farm, mostly running cattle. He became an airline pilot preferred to fly international rather than domestic flights. He threw daily temper tantrums. My mother was a small town girl,she is physically and mentally lazy and irresponsible however I believe she has a lot of energy and mental abilities but prefers to let others handle responsibilities. She is an only child, a ruthless user in a helpless lamb's disguise.

That’s a complicated question, OP. They weren’t the most athletic of parents or otherwise that would have been able to run faster.

Complex. My father's father was a ranch hand in Montana, and so my father was raised in relative poverty, but he was a brilliant student in school and was singled out for it. He started at pharmacy school but WWII intervened, so after the war, he used the GI bill to attend college and got a degree in mining engineering. Several of his jobs involved working with or for the Atomic Energy Commission, as someone who specialized in deep drilling after atomic bomb testing went underground. He invented and patented specialized drilling equipment.

My mother came from a relatively well-to-do family. Both of her parents were born in Ireland. Her mother had only an 8th grade education, but my grandfather who came to the US when he was a child, and graduated from college. All 5 children in my mother's family went to college and several received advanced degrees. My mother was a gifted pianist and got a very good job as choral conductor right out of college. But in those days women were not allowed to teach in school after marriage (because a man might need that job). My parents didn't marry until the very end of their 20s, so they were "old parents". My mom was a fantastic mother - wise, intelligent, and loving. My father was short-tempered and gruff, but with a wickedly funny and often cruel sense of humor. We all aspired to be like our mom, but we all inherited some of my dad's foibles. My father's job and income level were middle-class, but because there were so many children in my family, our upbringing was more similar to a working class family. Basic needs were all met, but there were no luxuries. Both of my parents were avid readers, so we grew up in a house surrounded by books, magazines, newspapers, and every child was expected to contribute to dinner table conversations and to be prepared to defend statements made with evidence. My parents divorced once we were all grown. They were two highly intelligent people, but their upbringings and personality differences were just too extreme to overcome. My dad has been gone for about 15 years, but my mom is still living at 102.

Blue Collar. My dad moved us to Chicago when me and my brothers were very little. They had me when my mom was 16 and dad was 17. My mom got her GED and went on to be a nurse. She was diagnosed as schizophrenic at 23, and was in and out of hospitals after that. My dad was a welder and worked 2 jobs. He worked for a huge corporation where he worked on locomotives. He also did a lot of decorative welding, too. He was a big believer in unions and fought for them. He wasn't educated, but he was wise about people and had the personality where he could get along with anyone. He became an Alderman where he worked. His other job was working on the Desplaines River welding barges. His boss there really liked my and knew he had a sick wife and 2 little boys and a daughter. I was the oldest so I tried to always take care of my brothers. They are both very successful. One builds custom race cars and owns his own business. He's been on Street Outlaws a few times. My other brother worked for the FBI, and is now retired from that and moving on to another career. They both lived me until their mid 20s, even after I was married with 2 small kids. My mom died a few months ago, and my dad 20 years ago. They'd be very proud of my brothers and I always tell them that. Both of our parents were loving, but especially my dad. I miss him everyday.

Both were educated professionals with a bohemian bent. They met in the west village in the 60s. Then bought a house on the north shore of LI where they had me and my brothers.

My dad was a brilliant artist/designer but an alcoholic. My mom was an attorney and then a diplomat for the UN. She was/is a narcissistic monster.

Growing up wasnt cute. I’ll just leave it at that.

At least we had money so I didn’t starve.

Neither my parents nor my stepdad got much more than a high school education. My dad was just a meth addict who stole. My stepdad was a trucker and a security guard. Mom is a nurse who never got her RN because she never thought she could pass algebra. Barely interacted with my mom ever because she'd just go to work and then go to sleep when she came home. On weekends, she would generally avoid me and my stepdad would scream at me or threaten me if I bugged him, so I just stayed in my room my whole life. They are animal hoarders who squandered every dime they ever made.

My parents married in 1940. Neither ever finished high school. My father was the strong, silent type. My mother was the shy, overly protected child of Irish immigrants who disowned her when she took up with my dad. Within the first 3 years of marriage they had two boys - because that's what married people were expected to do in the 40s. They were involved parents. My dad was Cub Scout leader and baseball coach while my mom was involved with the PTA and various school groups.

Ten years later I came along and by then my parents were over the whole parent thing. They had no interest in any of my activities inside or outside of school. By age 8, my brothers had both moved out. None of my parents' friends had kids my age so I was always the only kid amongst adults when my parents socialized. By 12 my parents got into the habit of leaving me alone while they went off for long weekends. At 18 I went away to college and never came back. I had a polite but distant relationship with my parents until they passed.

My mother was from the small town south and always plotting her getaway. She was a beauty but never felt like she fit in. She had a wicked way with words. Her immediate family was smart enough to understand her insults but slower relatives suffered.

My father struggled in school and didn’t do well in his Catholic household. Today I believe he’d be considered neurodivergent. His parents had some money and greased the wheels when he screwed up (got kicked out of college, then went AWOL from the Army). But he was very brilliant in his field and well regarded amongst his peers.

My mother was just ready to get married and he was the sanest boyfriend with the most secure future, once he started back at college.

They were married for almost 16 years until my mother died. My father remarried quickly. I was the older sibling, left with a smart mouth and tendency to wander. My brother, raised in what was basically a different household, dealt with the psychological trauma of our father’s bad choices and horrid money management skills.

My parents tried to kill me, at least my "non-DNA dad" wanted me DEAD after he found he wasn't the "bio-dad."

They were both "lower middle working-class people" as were most families in my part of East Falls (New Homes).

Non-dad was born in Manayunk, mom was born in East Falls (lived on Indian Queen Lane).

My "DNA-dad" was Irish English, his family comes from Northern Ireland. He was a DICK too, but Dad paid at the end!! We met again 6 days b4 he died; he told me he left me a "little gift" in his will. I told him it "better be a big fucking gift& give it to me now so you can claim a write-off".

I had, what I consider, the best mother who ever walked the earth. Her caring was the result of the upbringing provided by her parents who were the best grandparents who ever walked the earth, IMNSHO. Sadly my mother died far too young, at just 62, 33 years ago.

My father, on the other hand, was a piece of work, and a definite result of the upbringing provided by his evil, unloving parents. A lawyer by trade. A man who was a complete disaster. He thought of his children as commodities he owned and controlled. When we showed him he could not control us after we reached a certain age he had extreme trouble handling it. He was capable of showing love and tenderness, but you always knew that when he did he would always follow it up in short order with some hateful put down or some other act meant to let you know you were still on thin ice. He was also the most sneaky human on earth. He made sure our mother never saw him treat his children any other way than with love and tenderness. I did find out not long before my mother died that she knew how he was, but also knew that we knew how to handle him. His only positive trait was that he loved my mother unreservedly, and treated her like a queen. He only lived 1 1/2 years after she died. And all these years later I still hold a great deal of bitterness against him for the things he did and said to me during my life.

I was born a poor black child...

A man and a woman

My dad grew up middle class and had a degree in accounting. My mom grew up in a poor family and she was unable to attend college. She was a stay at a home off and on for some years. She worked seasonal jobs in the tourism industry and when I was 5 she started working as a school cook full time during school years and in the summers to help build up savings she worked in restaurants.

What kind of person was my "non-DNA dad" When he died, I didn't go to the funeral, waited until everyone left the cemetery.

I had the gravediggers open up the coffin, gave them 1 thousand dollars each to allow me to grieve. I stole his favorite watch, HS ring, his Army medals and tie clip. I pissed all over him, threw on a bucket of human shit& jerked off on his face. The 1 gravedigger filmed it for me& the other took Polaroids of the burial. I gave them another thousand dollars because they didn't ask any questions.

[quote] My "DNA-dad" was Irish English, his family comes from Northern Ireland. He was a DICK too, but Dad paid at the end!! We met again 6 days b4 he died; he told me he left me a "little gift" in his will. I told him it "better be a big fucking gift& give it to me now so you can claim a write-off".

Well? What did he leave to you in his will?

My experience is quite similar to R34's. The dates are a bit different in that my parents were slightly younger; and the age gap with my older siblings is even greater. I barely knew other children until I was enrolled in school.

My parents were simply glad that I was a quiet and self-directed child who didn't cause a stir. They were from farm families, with high school education and had few brushes with people of higher education and saw little merit in the idea. When teachers and principals pressed my parents to place me in a private school for greater academic challenge, my mother said no. She professed worry that it would only fill me with a sense of superiority, but more realistically she loathed spending money on anything other than clothes and personal appearance. They provided little in the way of expectation or encouragement, and the thought of a college education provoked worry more than pride. By necessity, I had to be self-possessed and self-directed and stumble through my own discoveries.

My father was the kinder of the two and grew more so in old age, and so we grew closer in his later years. My mother was brittle behind an outwardly pleasant appearance, and age only intensified her bad traits. In private, she had nothing much good to say about her parents, her siblings, her children, let alone their spouses, her grandchildren, or her lifelong friends; her last decade was spent wishing she would outlive them all for some sense of spite.

I took an early college admission and left my family and town with only infrequent and short visits after that. I only grew to know my older siblings a bit when we were all adults, when our parents began having health problems.

For me, college was an awakening, life really started then, and my somewhat distant and disinterested family left me with a fascination with other families and their dynamics.

Mother, knocked up at 16 (in 1959), married my teen father. Both despised each other and their offspring. Both one generation removed from poor white trash. We were that house on the block that the neighbors gossiped about ( actually, 2 different neighbors offered to let me live with them if I needed a place to go]. I left home between jr and sr year of high school at 17 and through sheer luck, managed to thrive. Have not had much to do with them over last 40+ years, but when we have met, it is as virtual strangers as I have nothing in common with them or other sibling.

R41

My dad married my mother just 15 months after his wife died from a brain aneurysm in 1961. He was a widower at 29 with a five year-old daughter.. My mother apparently fell for him head-over-heels but I think he was just looking for mother for his daughter. I came along 14 months after they married so everything seems to have been VERY rushed. They were both extremely intelligent though only high school educated. Sadly, I don't think they were ever really happy and just stayed together because my mom didn't believe in divorce. With a father who was almost a rage-a-holic and a mother that was probably an alcoholic, I grew up in a very tense home and by middle school knew to never bring friends home as I never knew what I was coming home to. I'm a bit of a train wreck myself...I guess collateral damage of a marriage that shouldn't have happened.

Mama grew up on the prairies of Kansas. She was tender and sweet. The dust and tornadoes blew round her, but they left her straight up on her feet.

My Daddy grew up on his own, more or less. His mama died when he was just eleven. He had seven sisters to raise him, but he dreamed of his mama in heaven.

They were great, loving, supportive parents. My life has felt diminished since their deaths and I wish I believed in the after life so I could see them again. They were the best people I’ve ever known.

Both of my parents came from wildly dysfunctional families. Dad was first generation college and made it to his PhD and became faculty in his area. Mom was the child of two British physicians, one Scottish and one a South African colonial who emigrated to the US in the 1930s to escape 'White Mischief' society. Her mother gave up her career on settling here. Her father became very successful with his aristocratic charm but was a complete shit of a human being. They raised us to be independent, pursue our own goals, and to put education first and foremost. My generation has a doctor, a lawyer, a CEO, an artist, a teacher, and a salesman.

[quote] His mama died when he was just eleven. He had seven sisters to raise him, but he dreamed of his mama in heaven.

MARY.

I was raised by narcissists with masters degrees. Both worked in education and were adored by their students. But they generally couldn’t be bothered with me, and never socialized with friends. They had many acquaintances, but no friends. It wasn’t until I went away to college (which I paid for btw, they expected me to go, but not pay for it) that I learned to be friends with other women. They divorced 30 years ago, and still lead really small, selfish lives.

I'll describe my mom, only:

1. Liked National Enquirer, Star, and True Detective magazines.

2. Drank black coffee, smoked Merit cigarettes. In the afternoon, drank Chivas Regal on the rocks.

3. Did believe in corporal punishment. Ouch.

4. Liked salty snacks like potato chips. Made a good clam dip.

5. Liked music: Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick. Could appreciate Van Halen and Guns N Roses, though.

My mama done tol' me

When I was in pigtails

My mama done tol' me, hon

A man's gonna sweet-talk and give you the big eyes

But when the sweet-talking's done

A man is a two-face, a worrisome thing

Who'll leave you to sing the blues in the night

My mom and dad are both teeny tiny… 5’2” and 5’6”

I am the family giant at a willowy 5’9”

You must've had some good nutrition, R54.

My brother and sister are both shorter than me. I am a freak of science! A family mutant!

R54 I’m the shortest man in my family by a lot at 6’3. My dad is 6’7, my moms dad was 6’9, her brother is 6’6 and all her uncles are 6’5 or taller. I don’t know anything about my dad’s relatives.