Bringing up Mom and Dad

My Mom and Dad are incredibly funny. Except that they don't know they are. And almost all the time, they don't mean to be.

My Dad learned computers only a few years ago. When he had his email set up, he couldn't stop emailing! If I didn't get time to reply, he would email asking me if I had got his earlier email. If I still didn't have time to reply, he would email asking me if I had got his earlier email asking me if I had got the first one. It drove me nuts.

He came to visit me in 2003, and he would fiddle with my PC all the time. He stopped reading newspapers, and would only read online news. He would send my sister five emails a day just because he liked using the keyboard so much. It drove her nuts.

The funniest was when once he couldn't find the 'Q' key on the keyboard. He frantically exclaimed to me, "Oh my God! Your keyboard does not have the 'Q' key!!!"

"Every keyboard has the 'Q' key, Dad!" I pointed at the 'Q'. He was so thrilled and relieved to see it there, almost in a child-like way.

Mom was another case.

"I won't touch the computer. What if it explodes?" She demanded to know.
"It won't explode, Mom! Computers don't just explode because you touched them!" I tried to reason.
But she didn't believe me. "What if it does??"
I gave up.

I remember the time Dad emailed to tell me all about how he had figured out the 'Reply All' button on his email. He couldn't stop telling me how cool it was. I was so amazed at his amazement at things we take for granted.

Then there was the day he sent me his first forward. I was highly amused by it. It was one of those 'your-boss-is-watching-you'd-better-pretend-to-work' kind of forwards. Strange that it should come from him, considering he is the boss at his workplace! But then suddenly, I had a strange feeling -- as if his sending me that forward had erased the generation gap and brought us to the same level -- two stressed out professionals sharing forwards to bring Friday closer.

My parents tell me that bringing me up was an amazing experience. I see what they mean. Bringing up parents is, too.

Congrats, Dad, on figuring out the Forward button.