What did you promise your mother you would never do?

She wanted me to promise to never French kiss a guy!!

I don’t recall my mother ever asking me to promise anything.

When she was 34, my four-years-older-than-me sister married a newly divorced (and most unsuitable!) man. (My mother is a huge snob). Two of my sister’s close friends also married newly divorced, unsuitable men that same year. My mother made me promise not to marry a newly divorced man when I turned 34. I kept that promise.

Instead, when I turned 34, I became an unwed mother.

I knew I would keep the promise, as I had no intention of ever marrying.

I promised I would never drive drunk and I haven’t. I also promised that I would never get in the car with a drunk driver and I can’t say I kept that one, though it only happened once in college.

I don’t think I ever had to promise her that I’d never do anything.

Mom never asked me to not do something. There were two tasks that she asked me to do upon her death. One was destroying letters from Dad to her. They were shredded and sent to recycling. The other was to mix her cremated remains with Dad’s and scatter them on the Blue Range Parkway in Virginia as they both requested. Tasks completed.

I don’t think I made any promises like that to my mom. I do have a ton of stuff in my head that I don’t do because of my mom though. All these little warnings she was constantly doling out, but I guess all moms do that. All very reasonable things. I didn’t feel like she was being controlling or anything like that.

Jump off the roof of a garage.

I did that once and luckily didn’t break anything. She told never to do that again, and made me promise.

Sixty years later, I have kept the promise.

I had to promise my family to never ever dream about being a writer because writers were associated with bad luck, isolation and mental illness.

I’m working on a comic right now.

Maybe I’m already crazy.

You’re perfectly fine @Mimi….

Mimi, tell them we said you’re crazy-smart and crazy-talented! (It’s true!)

@Mimishu1995 I’ve seen samples of your art Mimi. You’ve got talent take it from an old fart who’s been around the mulberry bush a few times. I wish I had your artistic skill, and you had a goose that laid golden eggs. Fair enough?

The only thing I really remember is not to cut things with a knife in the direction of any part of my own body. The promise was a condition of being given a pocket knife, when I was maybe five years old or something, and I think it probably expired at some point.

I took the promise seriously, understanding the condition and the reason for it well, because she took the effort to explain the reason for it well. I also tend to like not to hurt myself, so I wasn’t really temped to break the rule. It seemed like a welcome good idea.

I have, very occasionally, done so anyway, either being very careful, or accidentally, and cut myself a bit, like when cooking, but not very often or very badly, except I think one time not using a knife but a powered plant clipper, which I don’t think counts.

Well, and I did manage to stab myself in the arm with a sword once, but I was trying to sweep away from myself, and under-estimated the flexing motion of the sword point.

But I do always think about it when holding a knife. And when I cook in sight of her, she does seem to be keeping an eye out to see how safe I’m being if I’ve got a knife or something.

Not my mom, but my dad did ask me to promise him I’d never drink alcohol.

I’m 47 and have never had a drop, but in all honesty it has nothing to do with a childhood promise. It’s just a poison I want nothing to do with.

Dropping me off at the dorms for my first year of college, my mom said, “stay away from that guy that wants to go drinking when you need to study”.

Little did she know I was that guy. Sorry mom.

@Dutchess_III @snowberry @Nomore_lockout Thank you all so much!