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Casual Conversation @lemm.ee

Blaze (he/him) @sopuli.xyz

2w ago

What’s something you thought everyone did growing up, but later realized was just your family?

38 comments

My parents never got cable TV and we would always mute it reflexively if an ad came up.
was a bit strange when I went to high school and everyone had cable TV, and watched the ads! I still get a visceral reaction to advertising to this day
- Part of why our house is a Plex house. Cable TV is only good for live sports. And if I can't stream it live.. I'll watch it later.
  Ain't nobody got time for those ads.
  
  The only reason to let kids see ads is to train them to reject the ads' messages. Maybe also explain the way ads pay for shows but it doesn't mean you have to listen to them. Just like you can keep the "thank you gift" stickers without sending money if you're not into that charity.
  
  🤜🤛
- Tell your parents how wise that was, for me.
- I'll mute the ads and add my own dialogue. It's sort of like Weird Al for commercials.

Move an average of once a year.
- Same. I have a weird box hoarding problem now. I keep all the original boxes for stuff because when I move, it's best to put the stuff back in the original box. I haven't moved in almost 20 years, but I still have the boxes. Also, I need to keep all those "good sized" boxes for stuff that I've ordered. My spouse will look at me weird when I pick up a box and say, "this is a good box; we should keep it."
  
  For me its the opposite, I don't really care for material stuff, we didnt own alot of things growing up and we lost most of them when moving around so i don't really buy stuff outside of note-books and stationary(which i was obsessed with). With two exceptions, we never stayed in house for more than two years, sometimes not even the same country.This is also why i have a hard time archiving stuff like videos,movies, and songs. we didnt own tapes or records just watched TV growing, so i never felt the motivation to archive stuff even today's late stage capitalism streaming services.
  
  Working in IT is great; the boxes brand new computers come in are fantastic quality! Nobody cares if you take them either! The divider parts are also good for like, shelf/pantry organization.
- Wassup I-Went-to-Eleven-Different-Schools buddy?
- My family did that too!

Hated each other.
Edit: I’m in a great place decades later, don’t feel bad for me!
- Good to hear you're in a great place!
- I had a shitty childhood too mate, I feel you. Well done for getting through that
  
  Same to you my friend. Our parents can really fuck us up, but some of us are lucky enough to get the help we need, or find we have the strength inside already, to overcome it and be better people than we were taught.

My mom only used 3/4 of a cup of sugar in Kool-aid, rather than one cup.
- my mom did similar, I eventually learned that's why I didn't like koolaide. it always tasted watery and weird to me...

My family has some really weird vocab, stuff other Portuguese speakers don't use:
picopato - pot rest (actual name: descanso de panela)
cupesca - wooden spoon (actual name: colher de pau)
fuéun - a measurement unit, between a level and a full tablespoon
levar aqui - to bring, literally "to send here". (actual verb: trazer)
curica - the household cats, when you either don't know which one did something or you're talking about both at the same time
aguete - when you ask what's for lunch, my folks typically answer "aguete!" to convey "shoo, let me cook".

We loved each other

Screaming every single day?
I grew up with this: https://youtu.be/at2bMz_T6Io
In my aunt's house it was the exact same. So I thought it was normal
- Same, my father yelled about anything that angered him, which was a lot, but never did it around friends or family. I thought all families were like this. Therapy taught me otherwise.

I have what many would call a bizarre or incorrect way to hold a writing utensil, and after a certain age hit and I was already used to it and found it worked for me, I began getting loads of lowkey criticism from people at school who constantly tried to remark how "incorrect" it was.
- I had the same experience. A teacher even tried to break me of the habit in elementary school by making me write 100 sentences "the correct way" while the rest of the class got to watch a movie. That just gave me 100 chances to realize how much I hated "the correct way".
  
  Was it a part of the grade or something?
- I get the same shit sometimes for how I often hold eating utensils
  
  Same.

Diabetes for one, sibling, parents, grandparents(both sides), aunts(both sides),uncles(both sides) and other relatives. Not everyone had it but most did so i was surprised when my classmates family wasn't mostly diabetic.
Slaughtering sheep in Eid. Its less that i thought everyone did it and more that its strike like "Oh, yeah most men have never slaughtered a sheep and never well". I don't even eat meat but that what you are told to do cuz your a man and all that crap. I didnt even cut the sheep neck myself but have to cut its other parts. for record, i was threaten by father to do it when i was 15 back in 2017 and thankfully i haven't had to do again

My family is super snuggly. Apparently, few human families are. Seems odd, watching how other animal families and societies function.

We didn't hug each other. Nobody on my dad's side of the family tree hugs either.
- Hugs are a wonderful thing. I hope you have somebody in your life who gives them to you now.

Having a plastic bag full of meat/seafood packaging or other smelly foods like empty tuna cans in the freezer to prevent the trash from smelling before it gets picked up.

I don't feel a strong sense of love for my family. There is no particular reason for why, as far as I can tell my parents did a phenomenal job I just happen not to feel love towards them. Growing up was strange seeing my friends care so deeply about their families. For me they were just the people I happened to be born with.

38 comments