When you’re completely honest to yourself, not only would you truly understand yourself but you also get a look in others’ minds. Because in reality, we aren’t that unique.
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That afternoon while having sushi with my mom, I told her how I have come to fully realize I am truly her and my father’s daughter. I know where I got my inability to abandon rationality (from my mom, surprisingly)… and I continued to look for examples…
List of why I am the hybrid of my parents
- At times hard, apathetic and distance – Mom; Soft-hearted, extremely sympathetic and caring – Dad (surprise, surprise)
- Easy to please, content – Mama; Easy to be depressed, unhappy – Papa
- Ambitious – Mom; Not so much – Dad
- Optimistic – Mama; Pessimistic – Dada
- Insensitive – Mom; Sensitive – Dad
- Bold – Mom; Careful – Dad
- Heads in the clouds – Mom; Feet on the ground – Dad.
- Easy going – Ma; Difficult – Ba
- Stubbornness – Mom; More Stubbornness – Dad.
The list goes on and on… I distinctly remember saying to my mom “no wonder I’m extreme, with you two as parents!” Actually I told her I understood how she and my father work, why she/he think and do things in certain ways… because they made me (not only in a biological sense). However, that understanding is slowly sketching a bad but realistic outlook of a highly possible future.
My shower head at home broke for the second time within three months. My mom told me that the stuff the contractor used on the house were extremely cheap and of terrible material, so as long they were used, they will break. It so happens that I shower everyday (first time it broke was less than one week after the move, the second time was almost two weeks after it was replaced).
She had the guy come up to fix it once, and he advised her to get a new shower head and tube instead of using the same brand. So last Sunday night I was in for a big shock when my father suddenly showed up at my place with a key (following behind was my mother and maid), stormed into the bathroom, yelled and cursed the whole time. Based on my understanding, apparently I twisted and turned the shower head at weird angles and tangled the tube. Other than sheer stupidity from my part, I couldn’t fathom why on earth I would do all that.
Maybe because I was no longer exposed to yelling and cursing from my dad, I was pretty much in shock. I couldn’t force myself to speak, but silently watched my parents and listened to the contrast of my mom softly telling him what was wrong with the thing and him shouting how we break everything we use. They just stayed for five minutes, and when they left, I was drained.
That night in bed, I revisited my thoughts on having children in the future. For some weird reason, I know almost exactly how much my parents love and care for me and my brothers… and for my dad, he loved us to an extend that he rather be the bad guy and be hated by us when he has our best interest at heart, making decisions for us… etc. He loved and cared so much he went for the extreme. He had such high expectations of us and we didn’t deliver.
I know why he has such high expectations… maybe because he gave us everything he didn’t have, or maybe he thinks that since he’s just an average person and if we can’t beat him or just simply catch up with him on any area, we have to be dim and wouldn’t be able to survive in this dog-eat-dog world, making him extremely worried about us, pushing him… if you ask me, I do expect my children to be at least be the same if not better than me in areas like Chinese, English, Math, maybe Art… and I sincerely believe everything I know, everything I can do are just “basics”… and that probably is, I think, exactly what my father thinks of himself (oddly, he is also very skeptical and never trusted others’ expertise), leading me to the conclusion that I’m going to end up being my father when it comes to parenting.
Needless to say, I’d never want to treat my children like my father did. The worse part was that everything was done out of love not spite, therefore making me unable to hate him. After that night, the next two days I’ve had nightmares; my and my brothers hiding but he can still find, catch and hurt us… (which I found ironic considering that both me and Vincent felt the safest when he hugged us to sleep at night when we were younger). I felt the nightmares were such an exaggeration; just me dramatizing the whole situation (for God’s sake, it was just five minutes, get a grip…), but I guess despite all that, he has such a profound psychological impact on me that I could never rid even though I rarely see him in normal life now.
I guess he has helped me into becoming a better-equipped person; after all he was the one who strongly stressed the importance of English (the many “you speak like a HK student” was somehow a terrible insult), Factorization (getting good at that was the reason I wasn’t so bad in other areas in math), and has encouraged me to do Art (when we were younger he was extremely annoyed at Vincent’s inability to draw freehand the world map while I easily could… and he was extremely annoyed with my inability to memorize Chinese passages while my brothers easily could…). He couldn’t emphasis enough that if it weren’t for him we would all be nothing. But honestly, I’d never want anyone to go through what I went through internally even if it can make them a better person.
When I silently watched my mom trying to soothe him, playing the compromising role, I was so sad for her… because she always has to be the one who compromises, the one who has to understand (and accept) his temperament and verbal abuse (I think it helps that she doesn’t pay much attention or think over people’s words too much, but he can say such terrible things.)… She was the one who taught us if we decided to do something, then don’t complain. I knew if I were her in the same position, for the sake of the husband and kids, I would do the same, because I am her. Both of them, in different ways, would sacrifice themselves for their loved ones.
But I don’t want to end up like her; I don’t want to be tied to someone who is like my father or in any way reminds me of him by choice; I don’t want to have someone in my life who’s going to have the same impact and power over me enough to hurt me. I am a very cautious person (situations: Dad; people: Mom), and being “safe” in many ways is very important to me… I don’t want to hurt other people or allow anyone else to hurt me, which got me to the conclusion that a solitude life is probably the most logical path for me. My mom’s nature and my father’s nurture on me are probably going to see that to the end.