Random Thought
Dec. 13th, 2010 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesOver Thanksgiving break, I met up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hsiuism to walk around Boston and hang out. When my mother heard this, she was all 'who is this girl*', 'what does she do?' and 'how long will you be out?'. And, of course, 'stay safe and in a public place'. She then proceeded to tell her sister (my aunt, Maryjean) that MJ should check in with me regularly and call me if I'm out past the time I said I'd be. Maryjean was all, 'Karen, she's a grown woman in her twenties and it's just a person from the Internet'.
The funny thing is, as far as parents went, Mom was about average with strictness in high school. I never had a curfew -- well, my curfew was 'use common sense, and if you don't have any, then we'll set a time'. And Mom was pretty cool about me hanging out with friends. And, as soon as I was in college, the rules were 'tell me if you're skipping meals or staying the night elsewhere', which mostly struck me as courtesy for a roommate (who did most of the cooking), rather than parental rules.
But something about the Internet future shocks my mother. I think she'd be fine if I, like my sister, went to bars to hear live music playing with friends, because that was what Mom did when she was young. But meeting 'strangers' for coffee could lead to Horrible Things**.
Sometimes I wonder if, when my sister has kids, I'll be the (childless) Aunt Maryjean to Jenn's Mom.
* Any one of her children' friends are still 'boys' and 'girls', even though all of us are in college or grad school, and my younger sister is married.
** Another thing that strikes me as odd, because it feels like it's expected in academia that a lot of the people you'll meet by reputation first. And that remote interactions are at least as telling as, say, someone in the same organizations as you. (I mean, most of the folks I knew in high school and college from, say, clubs, were fine people, but I could point out a few that ended up badly.)
hsiuism to walk around Boston and hang out. When my mother heard this, she was all 'who is this girl*', 'what does she do?' and 'how long will you be out?'. And, of course, 'stay safe and in a public place'. She then proceeded to tell her sister (my aunt, Maryjean) that MJ should check in with me regularly and call me if I'm out past the time I said I'd be. Maryjean was all, 'Karen, she's a grown woman in her twenties and it's just a person from the Internet'. The funny thing is, as far as parents went, Mom was about average with strictness in high school. I never had a curfew -- well, my curfew was 'use common sense, and if you don't have any, then we'll set a time'. And Mom was pretty cool about me hanging out with friends. And, as soon as I was in college, the rules were 'tell me if you're skipping meals or staying the night elsewhere', which mostly struck me as courtesy for a roommate (who did most of the cooking), rather than parental rules.
But something about the Internet future shocks my mother. I think she'd be fine if I, like my sister, went to bars to hear live music playing with friends, because that was what Mom did when she was young. But meeting 'strangers' for coffee could lead to Horrible Things**.
Sometimes I wonder if, when my sister has kids, I'll be the (childless) Aunt Maryjean to Jenn's Mom.
* Any one of her children' friends are still 'boys' and 'girls', even though all of us are in college or grad school, and my younger sister is married.
** Another thing that strikes me as odd, because it feels like it's expected in academia that a lot of the people you'll meet by reputation first. And that remote interactions are at least as telling as, say, someone in the same organizations as you. (I mean, most of the folks I knew in high school and college from, say, clubs, were fine people, but I could point out a few that ended up badly.)
