Parents Are Human Too

It's a strange day when you first realise that your parents aren't the walking encyclopaedias you thought they were, but I can still remember it. This realisation doesn't change your life, at least, not when you're six years old; but I certainly believe it changes the way you look at them. Not in a bad way; but it makes you realise they're just like you, and they're learning too.

In my mother’s case, it was when I was asking her how to spell something. I don’t remember what the word was now, but I remember being surprised as I saw her reaching for the dictionary in a bid to confirm the spelling before spouting the wrong reply to her then very impressionable daughter. My mother does really well though, because English isn’t her first language. It’s not even her second; but her third. But to listen to her, you’d never know - if it wasn’t for the occasional Belgo-African lilt. Anyway, she astounds me, even today, because her knowledge of the English language is so thorough; she puts native English speakers to shame. So you can imagine my surprise when I managed to challenge her on this one word. I remember actually asking her why she didn’t know, and that’s when she told me; “I don’t know every word”. She's right, and I don't know why I expected her to know everything, but as a child, you do.

My father is a different kettle of fish. He’s not cocky, but he likes to blag his way through things, so at least he sounds as if he knows what he’s talking about - especially to his children! When we were kids, we would stay with him for the weekend, and he would take us to the most amazing sites in England; Stonehenge, Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman Baths… You may be aware that tourist attractions such as these will often have plaques with information about what you're looking at, what it was used for, and its importance in history. My dad would read and learn; to this day he loves learning, and I really admire him for that. Once he had digested this information, he would reign us in and teach us about the site; telling us all about what he'd learnt, except he would pass off the information as his own knowledge, because he wanted us to think he was the incredible dad that knew everything. In all fairness, he does know a LOT about all kinds of subjects, but like everyone, there are gaps to his knowledge, which he seems to want to hide. Anyway, once I actually caught him reading off the information straight from the plaque. He would say something like "kids, did you know that in the sixteenth century, this stone was used for ritual sacrifices? It was only when..."

You've got to admit that the human brain is an amazing organ. You can be ninety years old, and still learn something new; AND you can learn it from someone you least expect; a tourist, an arrogant young man on the train, a toddler, a newborn baby.

What you learn in your life shapes you into the person you become; and as a person, you are ever-changing. Nobody ever stays the same. It makes me wonder who I might be today if I'd learned something different to what I did. If I'd learned a second language from birth; I might be jet-setting round the world in a high-flying career. Life really is a gamble.