In what ways do you remind yourself of your parents, or of the people who raised you?

In what ways do you remind yourself of your mom, your dad, or of the people who raised you?
I have my late fathers drive and ambition and yet my late mothers patience and understanding. I don’t have there negative behaviours as with understanding and observation I abhorred that part in them but understood from whence that behaviour came from there childhood situations.
Do you look like them?
Took the good parts and ignored the bad parts of their personalities/ behaviours. I look more like my late Mother,Grandmother and Great Grandmother….its passed on in our DNA.

Do you say things that your mom used to say, or your dad used to say? No

Do you have the same philosophy or attitude that your parents had?
My late mother’s passive empathetic times and my late fathers ambitious part , but minus the aggressive .
Instead use assertive ways to communicate.

Do you have the same taste in decor, clothes, scents, food?
Growing up in the 1960’s era when sweeping changes occurred I was forced into old ways of dressing etc But eventually took on the new ways of independent thought and ideas of living and working and breaking away from the antiquated ways of my older parents.

Are you into fancy stuff like your mom or bohemian stuff like mom or music like your dad or fixing cars like dad?
My late mother at about age 85 years old started Cross Stitch and Embroidery and Crochet and when I had children I also took up some of these but not Crochet.
My Father never home except to change and go back out again rarely at home long enough to know him well..so no just the ambition and drive that he had is what he emulated to all of us siblings.

Did your mom read a lot and that’s where you think you acquired your love of reading?
NO but my older brothers in University and my older sister went on to University showed what was possible. It was also situational..meaning that Libraries were too far until our community nearby had built a new library of which I was a regular patron.

Do you ever say things and then think “that’s something my dad would have said” or “that’s something mom used to say?”
No.
Parents were older than most in our neighbourhood by the time I was born..in fact in my early teen years neighbours thought that they were our Grandparents because they expressed old fashioned dress and ideas
( late mother spent a lot of time in childhood with her Grandparents, so I assume that is why my late mother never embraced newer styles until on her own after my father passed on).

My mother gave me a desire to help others and independence.
My father gave me hermit tendencies.
My grandmother gave me a love for cleaning, and my grandfather a charm I can turn on at will plus a great work ethic.

I was raised by wolves – But if you ask them they’ll say they were just hippies.

I tell myself I’m my own person making my own life. But as time goes on it’s more apparent that my parents have passed on a few things that I feel & other people can see :
• I’ve got my mom’s hair (“Rapunzel gene”) and her laugh.
• My dad’s tall body and his love of sports (“It’s only a game, but so is life”)
• Her curiousity, his sense of humor.
• Her style in clothes, his taste in music (mostly).
• The attitude they both have that the world is better when we take a little less and give a little more.

But all the screw up’s, confusion, failures, pain, danger, joy, hope, and small victories have been uniquely my own. They’ve stayed behind me through everything. I want to be more and better than just a copy of what they are, but I know I could do much worse. It’s all a work in progress.