May 12, 2001    
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What sort of relationship do you/did you have with your parents?

*shrug* A parent-daughter relationship.

Karen, 21
Marshelltown/Ames
, IA  USA

Do I sound weird if I say "a great relationship"? There were fights and all when I was younger, but I never wished they were someone else's parents. Now I don't know what I'd do without them!!

Tracy, 24
Ocean City
, NJ  USA

For the most part I had an excellent relationship with my parents. I was the youngest of five and there is a five year gap between me and the next sibling. My parents were in a better place financially and they were older so they were much more relaxed with me than they were with my brothers and sisters. I told my mother almost everything that was going on with  my life and rarely fought with her. I only remember two serious disagreements and in one of them, she was absolutely right even though I'd never admit it at the time. My father was a fairly laid back man. He drank too much and as a teenager and adolescent it bothered me a lot. I came to accept it in college and had the grace to see my father with new eyes. Both parents died in 1993 and I miss them very much.

Laura, 36
Lowell
, MA   USA

I was brought up in a very loving, caring family and retained a close, mutually supportive relationship with both my parents until their deaths.

Jane, 60
West Linn
, OR   USA

A GREAT one. My parents have always shown me a lot of respect and have always trusted me..they have always been supportive and they have always shown love for me. The only bad thing is that my mother sometimes fails to treat me as an adult, which seems unfair since I'm about to start my sophomore year in college. But...overall, I have a fantastic, loving relationship with my parents, which is why I had to move back home

Angela, 16
Bella Vista
, AR  USA

I used to hate them both
now i understand them more
mom understands me more
dad understands me less
it's easier since we haven't lived together for like....five years or so
every once in a while i miss them then we visit
and i'm ready to do without them for a long time for a while again

Firelady, 23
Dallas
, TX   USA

My parents are a low-key couple who have always been supportive of whatever I have taken on. My relationship is one of deep love, yet casual communication. Neither my Dad or my Mom are my  "friends," they are my parents always and I can count on them and they are on me. I can already sense the void that will be there when they are gone. I am also lucky to have a 3rd parent in the form of my Aunt Margaret who has become more and more an equal as I grow older.

Felicia, 35
Lowell
, MA   USA

I had loving adult friendships with both my parents before they died.

Jill, 60
Saylorsburg
, PA  USA

A complicated one. I love them very much and I have a lot of respect for them, but there are some parts of my childhood that I am extrmely resentful about. Enough said.

Maggie, 20
Sandwich
, IL   USA

an interesting one.... i'll leave it at that

Sarah S., 17
Ithaca
, NY   USA

I have always had a close relationship with my mother and felt she was "fun" to be with. In some ways our viewpoints on life now differ, but she continues to be mostly supportive. Since suffering an illness this past year, she has become increasingly religious and openly judgemental. This has been difficult to deal with and has put a strain on our relationship.

I have never really had a relationship with my Dad. He was sorta like a lump that happened to live in my house. He was just there and had little personality. Since the birth of my first child, however, he has begun tooopen up and be more of a human and we are on tentative ground.

Deb

a close and honest one, they are nice people.

Maria

I'm afraid to answer - what if they find this?! Hee.

etoile, 20
Washington
, DC  USA

I think it's a pretty good relationship. We don't fight very often.

Dianne, 16
Oshawa, Ontario  CANADA

My dad worked very hard as I was growing up, so my mom was the disciplinarian, the boo-boo fixer, the referree between my sisters and I, sometimes the warden, the homework helper, the great advisor, the cook and the housekeeper. I didn't even really notice until I was about 19 or 20, how hard they both worked for us kids to have all the nice things we had, and to secure the wonderful home-life we had growing up. I had a great relationship with both of them, and became closer to my dad in later years, after he could finally let his hair down a little and stop worrying about a three-job income. My parents were a nice blend...complimenting one another's temperaments as well as their very different humors. I was very lucky!

Fisch, 45
Preston
, CT   USA

Both my parents are dead now but when they were alive, the relationship I had with my father was strained. When I was growing up he treated me pretty badly and I think he spent the rest of his life regretting it and trying to make up for it by sending me large amounts of money which he couldn't afford. (I sent most of it back to him with a nice but firm refusal.) My mother was a wonderful person but like many mothers back in the 50s, she thought the sun rose and set in my two brothers. I was the only girl the one she depended on but THEY were the ones who got the love.

Reba, 51
Rockville
, MD USA

Despite being EXTREMELY different people, my dad and I get along pretty well.  He is very quiet, very thoughtful, very soft-spoken, but made easily angry. His sense of humor is subtle and rather dry. On the other hand, I am noisy and moody and, yes, maybe thoughtful but more of the type to talk and talk until I clarify what I am thinking. I, too, am made easily angry. That's a dangerous aspect of our relationship but other than that we are surprisingly close. (My mother is deceased.)

Johanna, 18
OK  USA

Well, my parents got divorced when I was 10. My mom has raised my brothers and I for the past 10 years or so. My mother and I used to have a great relationship, but she changed after the divorce and now I can barely stand her. She has turned into a major bitch. On the other hand, my father and I have a great relationship. He's awesome. Maybe what I said about my mother is bad but it's the truth.

Jennifer, 19
Wilkes-Barre
, PA  USA

I get on very well with my dad, he's very easy going and good to talk to. I have a love-hate relationship with my mother - sometimes I can tolerate her, whilst at other times I wish she would drop off the face of the earth. But on the whole I get on with my parents far better than most of the people I know.

Shanna, 16
Cardiff  ENGLAND

I have a wonderufl relationship with my parents, everyone says... I mean, in my childhood, it wasn't easy all the time, of course, but, well, I talk to them like friends, I can discuss everything I want (okay, my mother makes some exceptiosn whenever it comes to sex...), and they treat me like an adult which I am, and I of course treat them with the respect I have for every human (and maybe a bit more). I love my parents, and it seems as if they love me, too.

Holger, 21
Linden  GERMANY

I have a really good relationship with my parents, actually. Better than most kids my age. My parents are really overprotective but I love them a lot anyway, me and my mom especially are really close and I haven't had a big  fight with either of them in a while.

Karen2, 15
Boston
, MA USA

I have a very special relationship with my mother. I can tell her anything.

Melodi, 19
Gahanna
, OH USA

Yesterday / Tomorrow