One thing I neglected to mention in today’s post that my
parents did which, as I’ve gotten older myself, has begun to make perfect sense
to me, is that they established control over their children early.
I think maybe once you’ve shown, through consistent
reinforcement, that the war is won, you don’t have to fight it every single
day.
I don’t remember NOT respecting my parents. I remember
disagreeing with them, sure, but not being prepared to outright defy them to
their faces.
On one occasion later on in my high school days, my father
and I were having words in the hall by the front door as 9:00 a.m. drew
closer and closer. Wanting to put an end to his lecture, I announced that “the
government says I have to be at school, so we’ll have to deal with this later”.
My father simply replied, “Well, **I** say you need to stay
here and finish this conversation”.
I was several inches taller and fifty or sixty pounds
heavier than my father at that point. There was no physical contest to be had.
But guess who got his way? It wasn’t me.
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