h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

With the festering season over and done withs, were you lumbered with an unwanted parent?

Who was it?
What was wrong with it?
What did you do with it?
Is adopting a new parent an option?

Your support for the Talking Point idea is admirable, atinythorn. And this is so amusing.

We wonder, however, whether you thought before you posted, that this might be seen in some quarters as an attempt to derail an idea we had to promote discussion among a wider readership. We are asking the community to share their feelings and anecdotes regarding topics that are likely to be commonly shared experiences, with no specific goal in mind, but that perhaps might result in a collaborative guide entry.


Your no doubt humorously-intended post has the unintended effect of undermining our effort. Accordingly, I'm sure you will agree with our decision to alter the title of this post.

Cordially,
The Community Editors

Ooooops, there I goes again

It never occult to me that my musings might de-tail the original post! But thanks for pointing it out.
Hopesfully, my quest will be seen as an additional piece of adverting for the origin now, so maybe it could be win win

Incidents........I did have an unwanted parent for xmas.
No idea who's parent he was, he just turned up and drank all my parsnip wine, ate all my sprouts, and sat watching the queen flatulating loudly!!!

I will NOT be inviting him next year !!!!

To misquote Mr Wilde "To lose one parent may be seen as life, but to lose two smacks of incompetence."

I've managed to lose 3. So I wouldn't mind one back for Christmas.

Ah yes

Losings them is much worse than putting up with them at crimbo

We found out who our rogue parent was by the by. Appears he belongs to next door, but got confused as we have similar curtains!!!!
Next door had a very peaceful crimbo apparently, and were able to listen to the queen's speech for the first time in years

Have to say, my parents are wonderful. Aside from very generous gifts to their daughters and grandchildren, visiting them over the holidays was a real pleasure, they go out of their way to make all guests feel at home. I'm conscious that they're getting older, and wont be around for ever, and I have many friends and family who are missing their parents, especially at Christmas, so I'm treasuring the time that I still have them.

Love you, Mum and Dad

This is coming down heavily in favours of parents not being unwanted at Crimbo (or anytime). I suspect any teenaged posters would have a different view however.
Guess we don't don't know what we got until it's almost gone

I suspect even next door would miss the flatus machine

My last parent died in 1976(the first in 66) and all the grandparents had gone as well.

Consequently at Christmas I often wished my children had more grandparents so I bought more presents than I should to make up for it..It's also meant I've been an elder of the family since I was 24..

I think I would have rather had a father unwanted or not for longer than 13 years..

Another thread I killed off..I'm getting good at that..

I think I read this yesterday, about you being the oldest member of your family at age 24 and was quite shocked. The oldest members of my family are approaching their nineties, and the have three complete generations below them.

It's hard to know what to say when someone reveals such a heart-rending piece of personal information Still Incognitas. I think words fail me. Sorry.

Now that you point it out, I was the same age when my mother passed, preceded by my dad and all grandparents. I really hadn't given it a second thought, except that my 2 younger siblings were still living at home, one of whom was still at uni.

I have always felt bad that my children never knew any of the grandparents, since their father's parents had also died before they were born.

I really have been blessed in that both my parents are still alive, and I was old enough to know, and appreciate, all my grandparents.

I don't think your comment stopped stopped the thread Incy, but it made me pause to reflect certainly.

As Lanza said, words fail, Incognitas, and Witty too. Gosh. Just... gosh. I can't imagine being that exposed at that age.

My father died in 1995 and I miss him most days; his passing did derail my life in lots of ways for all sorts of odd reasons even though I was in my 30s. My mother in 2001 and, rather unfairly, I miss her much less.

Ben

PS; are you sure your visitor wasn't Father Christmas, oh tinythorn? A much rougher and tougher customer than Santa Claus.

Oddly, I miss my father now; he died in September. I spent years trying to avoid him...

Never had to put up with him at Christmas, though, as an expat, he kept celebrating Sinterklaas long after it was out of fashion to do so in the Netherlands.

<< PS; are you sure your visitor wasn't Father Christmas, oh tinythorn? A much rougher and tougher customer than Santa Claus.

Farter Christmas would be nearer the marking I think


I am thinkings that this thread is showing how Christmas is a time of reflection on the past, and missing people who made our Christmas' past special.
A question for those who lost parents so early. If you have/will have children yourself, has this shaded how you act with them? Every moment more precious?