Five

I had the perfect childhood. We were middle class, and later on upper middle class. My father was a very important person in town, in politics. Everyone knew him, and he knew everyone important. He'd lived there since he was a teenager, and many of the people he went to school with and was friends with back then, also rose in local politics. Even now, when I go home to visit, we can't go ANYWHERE without someone coming up to my dad to shake his hand and say hi, or stop my mom in the store to say nice to see you. My dad was and still is very influential, and is still in politics there. So I grew up with everyone knowing who I was. I also grew up with very involved parents. It didn't matter what we kids were doing at the time, my parents were in the PTA, or coaching our teams, they chaperoned on field trips, volunteered in the school office, even ran the sports boosters' club. As a teen, it was annoying, because I never got away from them. I can remember in high school, trying to make out with a boy in the back of a school bus on a class trip, and having my mom catch me. They knew every move I made, even if it was at school itself and they weren't there, somehow everything I did always got back to them, whether it was good or bad. My parents were and still are overprotective, and I even complain that my mom treats me like I'm still five, and my dad treats me like a fragile princess. I think my first husband took after my mom, but the second time around I got it right and married a man just like daddy, who puts me up on a pedestal and bends over backwards for me. I could not have asked for more loving, sacrificing, caring, respectful parents. They raised us well, to say yes ma'am and thank you, to reach for the stars, to always do the right thing, to never give up and never give in, to be happy and healthy and balanced. Lately I feel like a fraud, because inside I am none of those things, and I'm not sure I ever was 100%. Although I am in my mid-40's, my parents are still overcome with worry with my health or finances or day to day well-being. I love them for it, and I appreciate my upbringing, I appreciate the fact that my dad would work two, sometimes three jobs so my mom could stay home with us, to make our breakfasts every morning and then be there when we got home from school. We celebrated all the holidays, had big birthday bashes, decorated the house for everything including Easter and Halloween and even Valentine's Day. Mom would stay up until midnight typing our term papers so we could get plenty of sleep. They bought us our first cars, they sent us to college, they gave us wonderful weddings, they gave each of us $20,000 as downpayments for our first homes. My mom gave up a lot so that we children could have everything when we were teens. She would buy cheap K-Mart shoes so we could wear Nike and Reebok, she would wear old ragged pants so we could have Sassoon and Gloria V jeans, she used a fanny pack so we could carry Liz Claiborne purses. My mom is still like that today. She grew up extremely, desperately poor and even though she and my father have well over a million bucks sitting in the bank, she still buys and wears the cheapest clothes she can find. It seems like my sibling and I are always giving her clothes for her birthday, or Mother's Day, because we know she won't buy it for herself. My dad is the opposite, he grew up very middle class, very comfortably, and he likes to spend money on the two of them- vacations, new cars, new boats. My mom is very humble, and so is my father but he worked very hard all of his life for that money, and he is not afraid to spend a little on them here and there. My mother refuses to allow him to buy things like flowers or jewelry for her, she's actually made him return diamonds to the store because she won't take something like that for herself. I know my parents are the reason I am the person I am today, besides all the depressing bullshit. I've never been arrested, I've never done drugs, I've never had alcohol, I've never allowed a man to abuse me physically, I graduated from college, I've walked the straight and narrow my whole life. I know they are proud of me, they adore my current husband (hated the first one), they feel secure about my future, and they still want what's best for me in every aspect of my life. To this day, they still encourage me, they still support me, they still accept me, they still love me. For that, I am truly grateful. On some days, they might annoy me, because my mom is a little nosey on the phone, but I know it is always out of concern. If anyone could ever be loved too much, it is probably me. Between my outstanding parents and my indulging husband, I am indeed a lucky lady.