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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

I hate myself for it but I'm ashamed and embarrassed by my parents

80 replies

overdone · 09/09/2010 19:13

They have just been to stay for five nights and I couldn't wait for them to leave.

I have felt embarrassed by them for years to the extent that they have only met my MIL twice for the twenty years that I have been married. However, they show no interest in her or DH's family, never ask after them, have not even bothered sending Christmas/Birthday cards unless prompted. If they call me, they never ask after DH and never ask to speak to him.

I always go out of my way to avoid meeting anyone I know when they are with me as they are useless with other people and my mum has hardly any social skills.

Other things are:-

  1. Appalling table manners. They never wait until everyone is sitting down before they start eating. I am frequently still dishing up while they sit down and immediately start eating. At lunchtime today, my mum had finished her meal before I had even sat down. She hunches over her food with her elbows on the table. She shovels far too much in her mouth and talks with her mouth full. Sometimes I can't even understand what she's saying.

  2. They drink loads. They both fill their glasses right to the top and often fill their own glass/finish a bottle before offering any to anyone else. They get drunk and talk nonsense-my mum will slur and my dad will get argumentative.

  3. They are greedy with food. If I take chocolates to their house my mum will open them straight away and not offer any to anyone. I hate eating out with them-a lunchtime example was my dad had two beers, starter, main course and cheese course with red wine. My mum had two courses, three large glasses of wine and a liquer coffee. DH and I had a main and one glass of wine. This is lunchtime we are talking about-I thought it was a bit excessive esp. as we were with DS who finds it hard to sit for very long.

  4. My dad is always going on about his "guts" and how he feels "blown up" and his health problems. His took his sock off to show me his swollen foot when I was eating my lunch today. He farts and burps constantly-doesn't attempt to hold it in around us even though I've told him I find it offensive. He calls gay people "poofs" even though his own nephew (my cousin) is gay and very much part of the family.

  5. My mum has a screechy "fish wife" voice and shouts and points her finger when talking which really makes me Angry.

  6. They profess to be christians but talk as if everyone else is wrong and my mum will say she "can't stand" someone-usually because they are gay.

  7. For the last two nights, I've had no help with clearing up the dinner dishes. My mum sat on the sofa finishing a bottle of wine after I'd had one glass. I finally sat down at 9.30pm after making them coffee.

  8. They are really messy and my mum is clumsy. She is always spilling or breaking things in our house and they leave mugs/glasses/plates on the top instead of putting them in the dishwasher.

  9. My dad puts on a ridiculous fake cockney accent esp. when he's had a few to drink and talks a lot to me a "baby" voice which makes me want to vomit.

  10. My mum has hideous dress sense. My eyes almost pop out of my head when I see what she's wearing sometimes.

Seeing all of this written down, they sound hideous. Yet, I know they really love me and apart from a few things in my childhood, I didn't have an awful time growing up.

I just feel so Sad that I don't have the kind of relationship I would like with them. I feel so envious of other people when I meet their parents and they are so normal. I feel like my love for them has faded. I hardly ever go and see them (they live a fair distance away) and never want to speak to them on the phone. I would be happy not to have contact but I know they would be heartbroken.

I just can't take another 20-30 years of this. I have a tension headache the whole time I'm with them and just feel really cross with them.

Apologies for such a long post. Well done if you've got to the end. There is more to say but I've gone on long enough. I just needed to get this out of my system.

Please tell me if I'm being a snob or is this unacceptable behaviour?

OP posts:
overdone · 10/09/2010 16:57

Wow! Just read through your posts. What a lot of strange and odd parents!

I have a confession to make now though-I feel as if I'm a fraud on my own thread. Mine don't seem that bad now. My dad did a lot of work in the garden and my mum did some ironing while they were here. They don't try and overstay their welcome (I would have preferred they only stayed three nights at the most but they were coming a long way I suppose), but they went when they said they would go. They are never nasty to me, they are just embarrassing.

Talking it through last night really helped me and I went to bed feeling so much lighter. I was even thinking that I should just introduce them to my friends etc. and just try not to care what people think.

I think a big part of it for me is that I think others won't like me or will laugh at me behind my back because of my parents. I also feel guilty for lumbering my DH with them and wonder sometimes if he wishes he hadn't married me because he ended up with them-(mad I know). He lost his dad in his twenties and has said that he wishes he could have had another father figure to be close to.

Someone asked if they were young, sorry, can't remember who. They are both 63 and retiring in a couple of years. They keep saying "we'll be able to come and see you as much as we want then".

One of the really annoying things that my mum does is give her opinion of everything (all from the Daily Mail or christian magazines) and be pointing her finger in your face at the same time. Her favourite targets are gay people, the labour party and the french (ditto my dad).

My dad is always signing up to money making schemes. His latest is trying to make a fortune on e-bay. He is really bitter about not being a millionaire and is always going on about members of our family that have loads of money, talking about their latest car or bonus.

He's a real whiner as well, always screwing up his face and getting annoyed (esp when drinking).

OP posts:
overdone · 10/09/2010 17:05

Good luck Niecie! Let us know how it goes!!

Fennel, interesting that your parents are christians too. Did you go to church with them when you were younger? How do you feel about religion now(at the risk of going off at a tangent)...

IseeGraceAhead, thanks for the link to "Stately Homes"!

OP posts:
Fennel · 10/09/2010 18:27

Iseegraceahead, I think you are right about being able to see the influences our sometimes-toxic parents had on us and our decisions. I feel that I had a phase in my early 20s when I did that in some detail, I worked through a lot of issues with my sister, and my brother has done it separately. I do feel that I've mostly shaken off the issues from their parenting. But, if you have to keep seeing people, every few weeks, for extensive periods, it drags you back in, however much you may have emotionally moved on. That's one of the things I find hard about having (or feeling obliged) to see them so regularly).

Overdone, my parents are very keen evangelical Christians. To them thre are two things that are very important and everything else doens't really matter. Being a Christian, or you go to hell. And doing well academically.
They managed 3/3 for their children on the second point (smug gits) and they have two unmarried feminist atheist daughters, but one son who's also an evangelical Christian (but in the wrong sort of church, they argue about that). Yes I did go to church as a child, we didn't have a choice, and yes I do have a certain anti-religion attitude as a result.

FrameyMcFrame · 11/09/2010 09:10

Nobody is all bad!
Nobody is perfect!

Sorry to talk in cliches, I think we all expect a lot from our parents. I just hope our own kids will be accepting of our shortcomings when the tables are turned!

FrameyMcFrame · 11/09/2010 09:11

Nobody is all bad!
Nobody is perfect!

Sorry to talk in cliches, I think we all expect a lot from our parents. I just hope our own kids will be accepting of our shortcomings when the tables are turned!

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