в чужих монастырях
09:54 | 03-01-2015 | Culturology | No Comments
замечательный разговор @ reddit о том, что странного было в вашем детстве — как, например, переодеваться в пижаму сразу же, как только заходишь домой (или “My parents never believed in Finland”). но есть и совершенно волшебные рассказы, пожалуйста:
My parents allowed us to engage in all kinds of mischief and destruction without judgement or consequence. It’s hard to explain in a single phrase, but basically we could do whatever we could think up.
There are a lot of pros and cons to it. For one, we were all able to engage in a lot of creative thinking, but on the other hand, we didn’t have knowledge of the basic rules of society. So early on, I’d go over to a friends house to play, and I would be like, wait – so you’re NOT allowed to turn all the living room furniture upside down and onto the side to build forts? Sometimes not knowing the rules resulted in embarrassment, or worse, lost friendships.
We did amazing things, stupid things, useless things, things that made sense, and things that made no sense at all. We’d drag every mattress in the house into the living room and pile them in a stack and jump on them. We slid down the stairs on sleds built from cardboard boxes, sleeping bags, and pillows. We went to bed when we got tired, ate when we were hungry, shed or put on clothes when we were hot or cold. If I decided to paint my bedroom at 3:00 AM, no one would say a word. We’d cook made up recipes at 11:00 at night. Chicken spaghetti and scrambled eggs with sauce? No problem. Feeding the lump of dough you made out of flour, water, and sugar to your sister didn’t raise an eyebrow. Let’s see what happens if we try to fry it or bake it in the oven. We were only limited by our poverty. The only thing I remember not being allowed to do was to jump off the second floor roof with a pillowcase parachute.
We all survived. Our lives were far from perfect, but they were never dull. These days, my siblings are the best people I know. We’re all successful in our own ways, and we have a bond that I don’t see among other families. Our childhood was tragic and sad and wild and filled with adventure, but above all it was 100% unique.
и еще:
Most people don’t dissect the thanksgiving turkey and giblets before cooking dinner.
Every year my mom would do an age appropriate anatomy lecture for all the kids using the turkey for her demonstration and an anatomy book for clarification as she explained how bird organs and bones differed from human ones. She’d make us name the tendons and ligaments on the bird and point out the corresponding ones on our own arms and legs.
Sometimes, after the bird had been analyzed, stuffed, and placed in the oven, she’d grab the cat and show how his claws retracted and extended and how that correlated to the first joint on our fingers. We then had to point out his major muscle groups as a sort of quiz to show we’d been paying attention and had learned something. We would continue the animal science anatomy lecture until the cat got tired of being manhandled and ran off.
Apparently most people just cook and eat the turkey.
I hope I’ll be as awesome as your mom one day.
She’s pretty amazing. I love my mom. The cat loves her too, even if he did spend a lot of time as a teaching aid.