Embarrassing Mom

For the past two years, we've enjoyed watching the show the Goldbergs. It's set in an era when we were just kids. There are so many things that remind of us the crazy things about growing up in the 80s and 90s. High hair. Station wagons. Kids that stayed kids for a lot longer than they do now.

My husband likes it because it reminds him of his family. It's always chaos with something happening. The boys pick at each other with tiny signs of loving each other.

I like it because it's nice to see how a family, even a functional dysfunctional one works.

If you've never seen the show, the mother is constantly embarrassing her kids. I suppose that's just part of being a parent and child. They call her the hover mother though. She over encourages and praises her children and knows everything.

Last night as we watched a repeat, we started discussing moms. My husband says his mom never did anything embarrassing. She had plenty of opportunity since she was the school secretary. It kind of made me sad. He struggles with the lack of involvement his parents had in his life and not knowing if he was loved. Maybe silly stories like that might have been a reminder to him that they did care and were present.

Like usual, I didn't have anything positive to offer.

My mom never cared enough to be a part of my life. It was hard and still is.

But don't think she wasn't embarrassing. She was! Just not in a kiss you on the cheek when you're 16 in front of your friends kind of embarrassing.

Until my senior year of high school, I was a total wall flower. I was an excellent student, but blended into the masses. We all did. I was the intelligent one with straight As and an honor student. My middle brother was the track star who broke school records. My little brother was the golf standout who was a sweet kid. None of us ever got into trouble, but we weren't well known either. We didn't take similar class loads. So, most teachers and other students either didn't know us or didn't even know we were related. They still don't.

There were times when I was known by upperclassmen and I wished I weren't. When I was a freshman and sophomore, my mom worked at a local grocery store.

She worked there with juniors and seniors. She was also loose and carefree with her actions when she didn't think anyone was looking. She hit on students and kissed customers and employees. I'm positive it didn't stop there. She had multiple affairs that I knew about.

The upperclassmen didn't hesitate to tease and taunt me about my mom, the whore. That was most definitely embarrassing. I remember telling her that the guys from school said she was a whore. I remember so well that she said they hit on her. She thought a lot of herself.

It's so funny that those things aren't terribly disturbing memories for me and aren't often thought of. I suppose it might have been different if she'd been single. She wasn't. My parents are still married. Frankly, I don't know how or why.