Compare/contrast - Growing Old Together

Growing Old Together

When you live with a person, or people, for a good amount of your life, you tend to really get to know the ins and outs of that person, let it be their personality, habits, fashion sense, just about anything really. I, like many people, have lived with their parents for roughly 18-20 years, and for some of us, that's more than three quarters of our young life. Living with your parents you really get to know them, which one tends to give in quicker, which one is more strict. Laurel, my mom, and Dennis, my dad, have been together for a little over 25 years.

My dad is getting grey pretty fast, he blames it on us and my mom. While my mom's hair is still a nice brown color, and no she doesn't use hair coloring, at least she won't admit to it. Mom is a little on the short side, only about five foot five inches; whereas my dad is a almost six foot. They both have to wear glasses, not all of the time though. My mom just when she's driving, and my dad when he's reading. Dad is in decent shape, played sports all his life and is still active when it's nice outside. My mom on the other hand isn't in quite as good as shape as my father, she blames that on giving birth to us boys.

My parents personality is what is the most common of the two. They are both extremely giving and loving, especially with my brother and I. Whenever I need help with anything both of my parents are there to help me. It's not just money that they're both so supportive with, it's emotionally as well. When I told them I wanted to ask my fiancé, Kristi, to marry me, they were both ecstatic and just so happy for me. Their joy, made me feel like I was making a good decision, because I know they would have said otherwise if they had thought poorly of it. Both my mom and dad are a bit on the shy side and are relatively quiet when it comes to meeting new people; however, if both of them know you, either one of them can talk your ear off with no problem at all.

My dad, just like most guys in the world, loves sports, NASCAR mainly. My mom is an arts and crafts woman. She absolutely loves scrapbooking. She has turned my ex-bedroom into her own personal scrapbooking room with tables, containers of pictures, notebooks, stickers, markers, pens, and stamps. Anything you could think of she probably has it in that room. They both love the outdoors, my dad loves to mow his lawn and keep it very nicely kept and tidy. My mom likes to plant the flowers and just make the home look a little nicer. Mom loves to shop, she loves to go out, look around, take her time and just plain shop. My dad on the other hand, hates going to stores and shopping and having to deal with busy crowds. He'd much rather stay home and do something around the house to keep him busy.

For 18 years of my life, I lived with my parents and got to really know both of them.