Note 1: leave a comment and I’ll donate a dollar to my local library

Note 2: Nice and Mean giveaway still in progress !

Last month’s poll question was, What did you think of your parents when you were in seventh grade?  Interestingly, this poll got the fewest number of responses ever–a mere 13, compared to past responses of 50 or more. 

Maybe I didn’t publicize it right, or maybe people are not interested in remembering what they thought about their parents at that age.  Or maybe some of us are parents and don’t want to go through that Looking Glass. 

In any case, here’s the report:

The majority of voters (42%), wrote that their parents were

“Pretty nice, helpful and loving, whether I saw it at the time or not.” 

 15% voted, “Probably they had my best interest at heart, but so they were annoying/ critical/ over-protective!”

Nobody said that their parents were easy to scam, but two people (15%) replied, “My parents…oh, you mean the people who fed me sometimes?”

Three people replied that their answers were too complex for multiple choice, and one respondent, a friend with an interesting mind, wrote,

“7th Grade pretty much drove home my creeping suspicion that my parents were neither all powerful, all knowing, nor able to take care of every problem I might have, as great as they were. Quite the bummer.”

Does that sum it up?  Scratch the surface?  I don’t know.  Parenting and being parented can be such loaded experiences—it’s a wonder how we don’t crack at the weight of it all. 

I asked this question because in Nice and Mean, Marina and Sachi, the protagonists, have very different relationships to their parents.  Marina, the mean girl referred to in the title, has a mom who is often quite narcissistic, which fuels Marina’s anger.  Sachi, the nice girl, is Indian, and her parents can be strict about many things, but there’s more love than in Marina’s relationship with her parents.  There are just so many things that influence a parenting experience—the parent’s job, financial situation, feelings about their own place in the birth order, relation to their new home, etc. etc.  Maybe this poll drew the fewest votes because it’s all too complex for multiple-choice. 

Onward, then!  This month: Nice people are….

Complex, potentially, but hopefully, less loaded.

See you at the voting booth!   And maybe the giveaway, too!