If you know me, you know that my extended family is a few sandwiches short of a full picnic basket. This makes me both angry and baffled at the same time.  My parents are amazing people, I learned all sorts of real world skills from my Dad; changing a tire, changing the oil, spackling a wall, painting that same wall (albeit I am not very good at painting), hanging curtain rods, how to split wood and knowing when I am out of my league and to call a pro.     

     My Mom taught me patience, something my dad isn’t very good at. She taught me how to make killer spaghetti sauce,amazing lasagna, how to roast a chicken and a turkey. How to make melt in your mouth cheesecake and fantastic chocolate chip cookies. From her I learned how to soothe a baby and how to make a bed, how to balance a checkbook and how to do my taxes, and how to hang those curtains on the rods that dad showed me how to hang straight and plumb.

     In short between the 2 of them I went out into the world pretty well prepared with some common sense and some real world smarts. I also learned the most important lesson from both of them early on. Their love was unconditional, their was nothing I could do that would make them change their love for me. I was their daughter and nothing would change that. I tested that ideal quite a few times throughout my teen years, and the outcome was the same. They would be mad, there would be consequences, but I was still loved and I was still their daughter.

     I have no comprehension of people or parents that just walk away from their children as if that part of their life no longer exists. Walk away from a former spouse a girlfriend, be my guest but your kids?  That takes a certain kind of callous human being that I just don’t understand. I know we live in a disposable society, but human beings are not disposable.