Parents As Friends

I'm glad I had the kind of relationship that I do with my parents.

My parents are divorced but they were divorced rather late in my life. Their divorce was final shortly before my 17th birthday. As a result it didn't really effect me one way or the other.

My mom and I are really good friends. She'll step into "mom mode" or I'll step into "daughter mode" when it's called for but other than that we just talk like any friends would.

With my dad it's a bit different. My dad doesn't really have a "dad mode". The only thing that'll really throw him into that is when he feels the need to get protective. Then all hell breaks loose. But other than that we just hang out and chill.

This evening on the phone kinda proved that. I had called him about his eBay stuff and after all that was out of the way it turned to him for some reason talking about my mom and his last two girlfriends and why each didn't work out.

I have absolutely no fucking idea what kicked that up. I think my dad is just lonely. In fact I know he's lonely. My dad hates being on the phone but he kept me on the phone tonight for over a half hour.

But I told him that he's doing the right thing by trying to get himself together before trying to get another girlfriend.

This is the first time in his 51 years of life that he has ever lived on his own. He went from living with his parents to living with my mother. From my mother he immediately moved in with his girlfriend and from that girlfriend he immediately moved in his last girlfriend. Now she is gone and he's by himself.

So while he's telling me all this I start to realize that not a lot of fathers and daughters talk the way we do, let alone about their relationships in the way that Dad and I do.

Sometimes something like that will just smack me in the face and make me think about how it's not really normal. But the thing of it is that it is normal to me. Since I was a teenager, aside from the protective thing, he has been my friend rather than my dad.

And we're going down there this Saturday to take pictures of more stuff for his eBay sales. I'm sure we'll have a good time.