Lefty Parent

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Living & parenting without the rule book

Posts Tagged ‘coming of age stories’

Burnt Out in Brussels

Friday, May 15th, 2009

My passport photo right around my 15th birthday

My passport photo right around my 15th birthday

It’s funny sometimes the things that motivate you. Like many teenagers so shaky as to their own self-esteem and therefore so easily embarrassed when they are with a parent in public, my discomfort with my mom’s breakdown in a hotel in Brussels during our 1970 trip to Europe inspired me to step up and assert the ability to lead my family when necessary. It was a milestone in my relationship with my mom and her transition from iconic parental authority figure to fellow human being and more of a peer. I was perfectly capable of asserting my own personal authority when the situation called for it.

It would be five years later (see “The Five AM Conversation”) when I would realize that the transition of our relationship was complete and that she would no longer set the context and tone of my life or be a necessary “star” in my personal cosmos (though she would continue to be dear to me and an asset in my life). (more…)

Posted by Cooper Zale, in Responsibility Comments Off