Thought:
Remember when we were younger, we promised ourselves that we were going to remember when we had families of our own, that we were NOT going to do the irritating things our parents did to us to our children.

I remember clearly the times my mother pointed her "pointing finger" and shouted out her warnings and at the same time predicted our future and how it wouldn't be any different for us when we got older. As I look back on my time as a parent (I am a lifer), I think about all the things I do that my mother did while raising her children. Pointing the finger stands out the most and I think it is because it was always followed by her frozen and loveless eyes. I laugh now when I think that I catch myself doing what I promised myself I would never do. How did that happen?

What about you, what do you remember from your youth that you made a pact with whoever to please, please not allow you to make the same mistakes, gestures, or facial expressions? Please share your thoughts with us...

Poem:

I hate the "pointing finger" pointing at someone thing,
Unless, you are pointing to get someone's attention, or you are pointing to send out some kind of a warning.
FYI, if you ever thought about pointing a finger at someone else, and letting them know a thing or two,
While you are pointing your finger at them, look at your hand as there are three fingers are pointing back at you.

My mom was a victim of the "pointing the finger" syndrome, and I never liked it when my mom held that pointing finger in the air,
The rule of thumb in these cases was, don't look her way, as you inch your way out of the room and quickly disappear.
Because every time her finger was pointed at me,
I knew she was not happy, and she was about to give me the first degree about something.

If I was late coming home, up went the finger, with a million questions following closely behind,
And you would think that after years of seeing her do this, I would learn to be on time.
Then there were the times with her finger still in the air,
She would warn my brothers and sisters and I to "wait until your father gets home, you'll wish you didn't live here." (Most of these times, we secreted second the motion).

And what about the times, as we got a little older,
And clearly had our own ideas and we expressed them as we grew bolder,
That "pointing finger" again would shake repeatedly,
"Wait until you have kids of your own, you will see it is not so easy."

Well now, just the other day, I found myself doing the "pointing the finger" thing,
As I was expressing to my family how I felt about something that was happening to me.
And before I knew it a memory surfaced in my mind that made me stop in the middle of what I was doing,
As I had realized I had my mother's "finger pointing syndrome," her disease had followed me!