BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)

Subject: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: P05139
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 05:26 PM

How many Catters have embarrassing parents? If they are Catters themselves (as mine are), you don't have to put anything incriminating on in case you get in trouble :-) I know I'm not the only one, but can anyone beat wanting to disown or disappear from them?

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 05:30 PM

I think its more the other way round with me: My parents have an embarrassing son.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Ely
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 05:44 PM

I'm just like my dad. I wouldn't notice if my parents are embarrassing or not.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Banjer
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 05:50 PM

It's funny I guess, I used to think my Dad was embarrasing because he didn't much care what he said. If he had something on his mind and wanted others to know it, they would damn sure hear it. HOW EMBARRASING can ya get? The older I get, I find myself more prone to speak my piece than to keep my mouth shut. I guess now I'm an embarrasment to my kids?

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: The Shambles
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 05:51 PM

My parents have never embarrassed me and I know for sure that I have never embarrassed my children.........

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Elise
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:05 PM

It's my 84 year old grandparents who are embarrassing. They always want to talk about their sex lives...jeeezzzz!

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: GUEST,Sarah
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:06 PM

I outgrew being embarrassed by my parents.

My brother, however...

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:11 PM

That is our JOB!! We have to embarass our kids, it's the only payment we get. It is one of my better talents, I mush admit!! LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:11 PM

I am proud to be an embarrassing parent. It's the only way we get our own back. Like the time we took Natasha to casualty with blacked up faces ribbons and bells. Of course we were incognito!!!!! Anyway Firecat why do you find your parents embarrassing they seem perfectly normal to me!!!

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Matt_R
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:26 PM

Oh good, I thought it was my turn to clean out the EPS conduits again! No, actually, my parents aren't embarrassing to me. But they do have an annoying habit of trying to read my personal emails over my shoulder when I'm at home. Nosey!

--Matt

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:28 PM

The very things one finds embarrassing about one's parents early on tend to be the oddities one finds oneself reminiscing fondly about, much later. Ya can't win.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Morticia
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:42 PM

During the unglamourous and unedifying hours of labour and in the long dark reaches of the endless nights in which your child is teething/vomiting/refusing to go to sleep,all that keeps you going is the hope that one day you will live to be a profound embarrasment to your children.I thank the gods that I have indeed suceeded beyond my wildest dreams.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:43 PM

I think most parents go through an embarassing stage, usually when their kid is in their teens. Parents grow out of it as the kid gets older.

My Mom would alway tell my friends about stuff I did when I was little. If your parents do that now, they may also be the sort to show future boyfriends pictures of you when you were 2 years old, naked in the bathtub.

When I was little, I used to love having my parents come to swim meets and horse shows and root for me. When I got older, their pride in me sometimes was embarrassing. Kids my age, me included, almost didn't want to admit they had parents.

It won't do any good to tell you not to let yourself be embarassed, that someday you'll feel like "yeah, they're my parents, they're wacky, and I love them," because it won't help now. I think the best think you could now do is talk to them. They may be terribly un-cool (most parents are) but I'll bet they care enough to listen.

I hope some more kids answer your post. We adults try, but it's not the same thing.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Ely
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 06:54 PM

The only one who was embarrassing when I was a teenager was me--I'll be the first to admit it. If most of the people who know me now had known me when I was fifteen, they would have run for their lives. Is it just as satisfying to watch a kid go through the dorky stage on their own?

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: kimmers
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 07:03 PM

My mother did used to embarrass me when I was a teenager, mainly by fussing over me in public. Once, at a high school basketball game where I was sitting with my friends and she was off sitting with other parent-types, she really succeeded. She came running up to me at half-time, grabbed my elbow, and shouted (in front of my friends) "Where's your purse? You lost it, didn't you? (I had a bit of a reputation for being absent-minded) I shouted back, just as loudly, "I didn't even bring it! It's at home!" She didn't believe me and continued shrieking; took me about five minutes to convince her that I considered the purse excess baggage and really hadn't bothered to bring it.

Now, I'm mainly embarrassed by my father-in-law, the old coot. He strikes up conversations with everyone: waitresses, salespeople, etc. But they're not friendly conversations, they're interrogations. He hits them with rapid-fire questions, never waiting for the answer to one before he asks the next, until they retreat in terror and confusion.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 07:11 PM

Does dyslexia rule? Surely this thread should be entitled EMBRACING PARENTS! - something which we should all take the time to do!
It's very important Kate!
Quack
Geoff the Duck

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Matt_R
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 07:21 PM

No need to worry, Geoff! In my family, hugging RULES.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Matt_R
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 08:02 PM

NEWS FLASH Jon, you're not an embarrassment to US!

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: sophocleese
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 08:18 PM

My mother still hasn't grown out of the embarassing to me stage. Mostly because she finds me an embarassment to her. The only way she can find to make her less embarassed by my behaviour is to yell at me across the crowded room to stop doing whatever it is that I'm doing.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 08:42 PM

I was....and I am.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Nov 00 - 02:30 AM

I do goofy stuff when Kate and I are out alone together--like put those plastic flower candle rings on my head and act like a fairy princess in Wal Mart. But she started the bump em car game with the office chairs in Staples.....and she is the one who cleans the outside of the windscreen with a toothbrush while going down the highway ( I WAS driving)

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: The Shambles
Date: 26 Nov 00 - 06:34 AM

There is the line from 'Keeping Up Appearences' that I like.

One should always be proud of one's family, but there is no need to acknowledge them in public.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Naemanson
Date: 26 Nov 00 - 06:43 AM

I think there is an ingrained need to embarrass one's child. After all, who was embarrassed when there was that temper tantrum in the department store when she was three?

My children apparently are not easily embarrassed by their father. I do all I can, including hitting on the single women we meet, and they just roll their eyes and proudly tell their friends of my exploits. They know I cannot be taken seriously most times. They also know when I can be taken seriously. We have a great time together.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Catrin
Date: 26 Nov 00 - 12:21 PM

I am an embarrsassing parent - especially when I launch into song while walking down the street. "Muuuuum, stoppit - your EMBARRASSING me!".....

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 26 Nov 00 - 01:16 PM

Jeri said:

"They may be terribly un-cool (most parents are)"

Jeri, don't you know that "being cool" is in very large part INTENDED to exclude the older generation, to define them as "other"?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Naemanson
Date: 26 Nov 00 - 01:38 PM

But Dave, my kids and their friends think I'm cool! It is a designation I wear with pride! What does that say about me as a parent? Am I facing eviction from the secret parents meetings?

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Thyme2dream
Date: 26 Nov 00 - 03:55 PM

Oh my, I am extremely adept at embarrassing my boys- from both angles really. On the one hand, I tend to the normal dorky parent syndrome...bursting into song with "O the Blue Bonnets are over the border..." every time I head for the margarine section of the supermarket (i bet that one needs some explaining)and playing this weird Bluegrass music when we drive along in the car (don't even mention the bagpipes!!). But Im also good at embarrassing them because I'm cool once in awhile. It's not that I try mind you-I gave that up when I was 16-but I genuinely like some of the same things they do, Renaissance Festivals and Xmen and Star Wars...and then there was ROCKFEST this summer...I really wanted to go, in my way of thinking it was nice of ME to include THEM! I was a good mum, I didn't drink, so they didn't have to worry about that...I held my tongue and my breath when my older two headed into the heart of the mosh pit in front of the stage (did have to give myself the "now karla, they are old enough to take care of themselves" lecture under my breath a couple of times tho')and I let them wander about as much as they liked...didn't even ask them to claim me! The only wee bit uncomfortable bit was when the drunk guy tried to hit on me and my 11 year old glared at him so fiercely he just backed up and apologized profusely! We had a good laugh at that one, and Jesse is now my official bodyguard! But the boys are still embarrassed... and I still think it's funny, which embarrasses them even more...I hope this phase passes eventually, but until then, Im having GREAT fun!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 11:07 AM

I practiced long and hard at the art of embarrassing my son. He will tell you it has paid off. Just this weekend he stuck his arm in an elevator door to reopen the doors and Mom did the Mom-thing. At 25, he still gets embarrassed. And all the other Moms in the elevator nodded wisely in agreement with my tirade. It's a wonder he didn't kill me.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: MMario
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 11:15 AM

I'm just pleased that when I hit forty my Mom finally stopped introducing me as one of her "little ones". At long last, I am one of the "older children"

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 11:46 AM

My dad's fishing outfit...

One of those spread-collar paisley on white permapress cotton shirts.

Dark madras plaid, bermuda length shorts

belt immaterial as it hid beneath the tails of said shirt

Worn out wing-tips (brown)

black socks.

Dad was 6'4" and the knobby kneed skinny that shorts only accentuate.

When he wanted to go fishing...there was nowhere to run...nowhere to hide.

Did he embarrass me?

What do you think?

John

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 02:21 PM

I can testify that Morticia is truly the worlds' most embarassing parent, even more so than my own sweet brown haired old mother, who moved house recently and didn't tell anyone, not even my sister whom she was living with.... and I have an entire ALBUM of those naked in the bath/front room/public park~asleep face down in dinner/book/computer pictures for the Bratling. She, who was once dragged through a store by her legs because she wouldn't stop screaming - she who has been carried 'like a pig' i.e., under one arm, kicking and flailing, more times than I can remember for throwing tantrums/not behaving.... ah, revenge is sweet. She made me sick for 6 out of 8.5 half months, knackered any stomach muscles I ever had and left me with an interesting scar that I can never show off in public..... I'm not even started yet.....

Morticia is teaching me everything she knows.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Llanfair
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 02:42 PM

It takes real dedication to embarrass your kids PROPERLY. Catrin, I also sang in the street, they HATE that!!. I have the photos, and I know how to use them.
Unfortunately they are now heading for their 30's and married, so I have become "she who is rather dotty, but must be tolerated"
But I have the first photos of Jake, and when HE is 14............!!!!!!! He He He.!!
Cheers, Bron.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: paddymac
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 03:18 PM

It's one of life's little pleasures, but should never be done maliciously.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Morticia
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 04:46 PM

Why thank you Liz and may I say you are student with extreme promise. I should confess here that my daughter, and my daughters friends, actually seem to think I am cool, (whatever that may be) and invite me to their parties so I actually failed miserably there..... but my son,at the tender age of 15, one spit on a hankie, one sword fight with french sticks in the supermarket, one chorus of something folkie in the middle of the High St. and he's mortified for days.....oh what bliss!!

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Kim C
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 05:48 PM

My dad always used to tell stories on me about how I would not behave.

My mother still does this: "Did you remember to thank so-and-so for such-and-such?" No, Ma, I'm a heathen and you didn't teach me any manners whatsoever. "Go over there and give your grandmother a hug." Actually, Ma, I was pretending she was invisible. "Go tell your Aunt Patsy you like her Christmas decorations." Aw, Ma, do I hafta?

You get the picture.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Tig
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 05:49 PM

OK I admit it - I am the dreaded embarassing parent, The Badger is the other! We left her in charge of the badge stall a couple of years ago and came back to find her wearing a EPS badge, but we've got our own back by the number of Proud to be an Embarassing Parent badges we have sold. Just because she's still aware we exist......

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 05:50 PM

Ah, yes, I too am proud to be an Embarrassing Parent. My own sweet daughter can't stand to walk with me down the street when I am inspired to lift my voice in song. And she's only 11! To think of the years ahead of me when just breathing the same air will be an embarrassment! Mind you, when her friends are over I am a Cool Mom and alone at home there's no one else she runs to when the mean kids at school tell her she's too weird to run for student council. So I don't worry too much about the public displays.

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 05:58 PM

It's impossible NOT to embarrass your kids, mainly because it's impossible to fathom what THEY consider cool. I personally consider anything to be cool which makes you happy and which doesn't actually harm another person, but I realize it would be impossible to get any teenager to agree to that definition.

My father used to enjoy embarrassing me and my friends. For example -

I am named after my father. My family always called him Jim and me Jimmy. At some point I decided I hated being called Jimmy, because it sounded too juvenile, so I got my teachers and friends to call me Jim. My friends mostly didn't even know my father had the same name. When they called on the phone they would ask for "Jim." Dad would answer the phone and say, "This is Jim speaking." Even though he knew perfectly well it was me they wanted, he pretended not to understand. Usually my friends would get flustered and hang up. He would just laugh, and when I complained, he would say it was my fault for telling my friends my name was Jim.

I am still confused about whether I should consider that innocent fun, or just plain sadism.

Speaking of embarrassing names, it reminds me of a time when a friend of mine used brilliant diplomacy to avoid embarrassing her daughter.

The family name is Proechel, traditionally pronounced to rhyme with "freckle." I and my friend and her 15-year-old daughter were attending a meeting where we were all asked to introduce ourselves. The daughter had to go first. She said, "I'm Wendy Pro-SHELL." Her mother came next. After a slight hesitation, which probably nobody noticed but me, she said, "I'm Linda. I'm Wendy's mother."

(The names have been changed to protect the innocent.)

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 06:03 PM

Actually, our kids think I am pretty cool, and their friends love to hang out here. Kate doesn't encourage it, but Luke does, and his friends come by just to see me. I honestly think it is because we are a real, intact family that loves each other. So many of these kids don't know what family really is; they never had one.

It helps that I can be just as silly as they can, and just as irreverent, scatalogical, etc. None of them have moms that will tell dirty jokes, or laugh at their "cool/macho/prove it" antics. They just walk in, any time of day or night for help, company, food, etc. What's the matter of a little doorbell ring, right?

The only serious drawback is--No more naked backrubs in front of the fireplace.

(But Kate HATES it when I sing in public--so I do! LOL)

Subject: RE: BS: EPS (Embarrassing Parent Syndrome)
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 06:08 PM

I have a wonderful photo of Alec (now 14) dancing knickerless in the garden in a tutu. I'm saving it for his first girlfriend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!