I Married My Father
Growing up, my dad could do no wrong and I followed in his footsteps very carefully.
He read the newspaper every day. So did I.
He read books like he couldn’t get knowledge into his brain fast enough. I’ve been known to read an entire 250-page book in the bookstore while the rest of my family is still just browsing.
My dad never swore, smoke or drank. Even now as a perfectly legal adult, I don’t smoke or drink. (I’m working on the swearing.)
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the same qualities that made my dad my hero are the same qualities that made my husband “The One.”
They are both patient to the point where you might wonder, What’s wrong with them? They don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t swear. They both value education and have Master’s degrees. They both inhale sports scores like they’ve got money riding on the games.
It helps in many ways that they are similar, since it makes it easier for them to get along. When my husband and I have a disagreement and I make the (unfortunate) decision to blab to my father about it, more than likely he’ll take my husband’s side and urge me to ease up on him!
In a CNN article on the topic, experts say that we are very likely to marry people with the same characteristics our parents’ possess:
Berkeley, California, psychotherapist Elayne Savage says familiarity is a big reason people may choose someone like Mom or Dad as a partner.
“When you grow up familiar with a certain type of person, you’re attracted to that same type of person because it feels comfortable, whether you like it or not,” says Savage, author of Breathing Room: Creating Space to Be a Couple. “That’s what people mean when they meet a potential partner and say, ‘It feels like I’ve known him my whole life.’”
But it’s no
Do you see some of the same qualities in your opposite sex parent that you see in your spouse? Do you ever feel like you married your dad/mom?
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