1. I haven't told my parents about my blog or my novel yet. Because, y'know, it hasn't come up in conversation. (Translation: I'm too chicken.)
2. For the duration of their stay, I'm taking time off from work, so the work-related craziness pressure is off for the moment. Mom and Dad -- being the coolest parents ever -- are spending their vacation here at my house helping me clean and re-organize everything, and doing yardwork and home repairs that I've been putting off since, well, since last time they visited...
This is a fabulous vacation for me because the stress is melting away as all of the things I'd been letting slide (but worrying about in the back of my mind) are getting done!!! We're rapidly moving from a state where the house looks like a pig-sty hit by a tornado (I wish that were an exaggeration) to a state of it being fit for human habitation.
This morning the parents are off at their respective churches, so I'm getting in a little blog reading. Soon the boys and I will be off to the park to meet their grandma after church. (There's a nice park right near the LDS chapel.) And we'll bring Grandma some nice croissants!!! :D
The Adventures of a Friendly French-American ExMormon Atheist Mom Living in Switzerland!!!
7 comments:
Hi
I just discovered your blog. I'm gong to have a long stroll through your postings today but thought I'd just say hi.
Hi Nicholas, nice to meet you!!! :D
That's the best part of parents visiting - my parents do the same thing. Last time my dad was here he helped us put a new doorknob on the twins' room (so they won't lock themselves in). Glad to hear that it's stress free so far.
Hey Aerin!!!
Yeah, it's been fabulous!!! It feels so good to have each room clean and organized, each broken thing fixed. Also, it's cool that even though all three of us (me and my parents) place a lot of emphasis and value on our own worldview, we're able to talk about everyone's different church activites without it being one trying to convert or pressure the other. Well, except that I haven't told them about my whole exmo-atheist blogging hobby, but that's my own neurosis, that's not because of them looking down on my lifestyle.
Here's a funny example from this morning: my mom was playing that little finger game with Nicolas that goes "here is the church, there is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people." Except that she said it was a school and skipped the part about the steeple. I don't think I would have been offended if she'd said church -- I don't have a problem with my kids learning that churches exist and that people go there. ;^) Still, it's pretty different from some of the horror stories I've read about on other atheist blogs about religious parents teaching the grandkids to pray, telling them their heathen parents aren't going to heaven, etc.
Glad you are taking a small vacation. I started a bit of technical writing and it has taken a lot of time. (4 months) ;-)
Why would you tell your parents about your blog? That seems like a recipe for a) putting a strain on your relationship with your parents and b) making it harder to write in your blog, as you have to become more audience conscious. Blogging is hard enough without having to take that into account, IMO.
Thanks Cynthia!!!
I hope your project is going well!!!
Hey Robert!!!
That is a very good question!!!
It's true that a lot of exmo bloggers are online anonymously and working through a lot of church-related issues, and in their case there's no good reason to tell their parents about their blog.
My situation is a little different though. One of my goals through my Internet activity is to promote the idea that non-believers raised Mormon can have common ground as "cultural Mormons" with believers, so it's kind of ridiculous if I can't acheive this in my own home. We get along great, but the current situation is that we talk about Mormonism only in terms of their activities (why would it be otherwise if they don't know about this?). Yet, like my (exmo atheist) brother who does serious LDS history research, I'm proud of the writing I've done here and in my novel, so on some level I'd like to be able to tell them about it.
Additionally, I end up having to disguise the fact that I'm so current on what's going on in Mormon-land. I know when conference weekend is and what some of the talks were about, I know about protests going on at BYU, etc., etc. So when I'm in conversations where people mention current Mormon stuff (they're fairly frequent as family members talk about what they're doing), either I have to keep my mouth shut about how much I know or I have to explain how I know all that. And I end up feeling like I'm being juvenile and disigenuous...
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