Ok, so maybe it's just that my parents are coming to visit. For those of you who do not know, my father is an evangelical christian minister. He's actually much more friendly-looking and acting than the pic I pulled up. ;) My parents are mostly nice people. We spent most of my childhood "in the mission field", which is a polite way of saying we begged money from churches to live on, then went to a second world country with a higher literacy rate than our own to "bring the word of God to the heathens". Let's just say that we don't agree on a lot, philosophically speaking.
I've always been one of those "square peg, round hole" type of kids, at least on the inside. Pretty early on, I figured out that the way I looked at things wasn't going to work with the way my parents saw life, so I learned to be a really good liar to shield my parents from the crushing disappointment looming on the horizon, when they would learn the truth. They were raising a non-believer.
As soon as I was an adult, I stopped the church thing. They were hugely traumatized when I married PG, an agnostic. My poor child is being raised in the darkness of free-choice, on the express train to hell. How could it get any worse?
Fast forward to the present time: I came out to them last spring as poly and bi. That's been a fun set of conversations, to say the least! Honestly, I'm rather surprised that they're coming to visit us. They're staying in the house, with all of us. Together. It's a bad reality TV show: Three polyamorous agnostics, their unsuspecting children, a conservative minister, and a guilt-trip spreading mother live together for one week. Who will emerge unscathed?
To give them credit, they are coming out. They are staying. They are being open enough to at least observe. That's more than I expected.
So, if you don't hear from me much in the next week, think happy thoughts for me. If I end up camping out on my computer venting into the blog, take it all with a big grain of salt and wait for this to pass us by and sanity to resume its hold on things. Thank you. That is all.
3 comments:
Wow!!! What a, um, dynamic week that's going to be! I hope they really have come to observe and learn and not to judge or guilt. Best wishes to all five of you!!!
I can TOTALLY relate.
My dad is a minister at an evangelical church too, and my mum holds very similar beliefs. I did too, up until about the age of twenty or so. Neither of my parents is a bad person, and they certainly don't come across as homophobes and racists, but unfortunately those elements are there.
My mum's getting a lot more accepting of diversity and has got to the point of saying that she just wants her kids to be happy, my dad on the other... we'll let's just say he's all charm until you set him off and the hate just starts spilling out...
*sigh*
Two and a half days in, and all is quiet on the western front! They've been pleasant and friendly, with occassional moments of awkwardness, but really, nothing terribly awkward.
I am still feeling like Damocles though, waiting for the sword to fall opon my unsuspecting head. I'm sure that will pass, say, in five days? ;)
Thanks for all the support!
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