Are Your Parents Still Affectionate?!

(Photo of Gourds by CarlaDyck)

        To those of you who are still young...I'm talking...in your twenties or early thirties...that question probably sounds ridiculous. You're probably thinking: "What in the world are you talking about?!...Of course they are!"

     Well, clearly, I'm not talking about YOUR parents! LOL I'm talking to those of you with parents in their seventies or eighties...or more!...Are your parents still affectionate toward each other?!

      Before I go any further let me tell you what I'm talking about...and what I'm NOT talking about! I'm not talking about sex here. I'm talking about affection. Holding hands, touching, cuddling, sitting close to each other on the sofa, flirting with each other in the kitchen, looking each other affectionately in the eye from across the room, and maybe a butt pat every once in a while...*Teehee*...you know...old people love!

(wedding day groom gift cufflinks by whitetruffle)

        I'm talking about it because my hubby, after fixing the brakes on the car yesterday.....FINALLY done!!..., took his mom over to the facility to visit his dad. Apparently she wanted to take him a coat and some shoes to wear on an appointment to the doctor's office later in the week.

     They don't get to see each other often anymore, with him being in a facility not close by, and ma not being able to drive. {I still can hardly believe that she never learned to drive!} My hubby's siblings share the responsibility of taking her over to see him. Usually his brother takes her every Monday, but because it was a holiday yesterday...which we don't celebrate anyway...and hubby was off work, hubby took her.

     He was feeling sad for his mom. :-( He said she looks lonely these days...like she's starving for affection...

 (Print of an original charcoal and ink drawing by KindlyMonsters)

       

         He remembers that she never did before. In fact, his mom and dad barely got along when they were in the house together! She almost seemed relieved when she first had the house to herself!...He told me about how his mom used to tell his father every week when he went grocery shopping to bring certain things home...new things!...and how his father would just totally ignore her and bring the exact....I mean EXACT...same thing home every week!

      Just from the story, it sounded to me like there must've been something else going on between them. Some kind of long time resentment or something....But over what?....Who knows! For as long as I've been in the family...more than thirty years now...what I've seen is that they hardly ever talk to each other, except for when ma was bickering over one thing or the other that 'Pop' did...or didn't do!

(Watercolor Illustration by ongeleek)

        But yesterday, when he took ma to visit his father, he noticed a true and gentle affection between them!...

(Photograph by kellya)

       It took hubby aback to see his father smile when his mother walked into the room, and put his hand out to hold hers. Then, while hubby busied himself with something...anything!...they whispered softly to each other, and his mom laid her head affectionately on his father's shoulder for a while...My hubby could barely believe his eyes!!

       When did they become friends again?!...

(Impressionistic Photographic Print by JoshFriedmanPhoto)

       

        When did they rekindle their affection for one another?!...

(Photograph by JMariePhotography)

        

         And hubby wanted to know where all of this affection was when he was a kid?!!!!...He jokingly says sometimes that he doesn't even know how his youngest sister was even conceived!...because somewhere after the middle kid was born his parents began to sleep in separate bedrooms, on different floors of the house! O_O {He suspects his father's acquired drinking habit at this time might've had something to do with it it, but he doesn't know for sure.}

           Personally, I don't care when or where it started. I just think it's nice. :-) I was raised in a completely different environment than my hubby was. In fact, the affection between my parents in our household was 'over the top' sometimes!...and not always in a good way...But that's a story for another time!...But even so, given the choice of seeing too much affection between my parents, versus no affection at all, I'd take the affection every time!

      The good thing about the affection in my family was that they weren't afraid to show their feelings...ever! Especially my dad. He was a flirting pro with my mom, and my step mom in later years. Maybe that's why they loved him so much. :-]

      Now, me and my hubby are in our fifties and I can't imagine having a non-affectionate relationship...no matter how old we get! I look forward to many, many years to come...cuddling with him, holding his hand, putting my head on his shoulder, and whispering sweet nothings in his ear...whether he can hear them or not!.....Aaaaaaa?! ^_^

        Are your parents still affectionate with each other?!.....Can you talk about it?! ^_^ I'm off to figure out what the Giveaway will be this time. But I look forward to hearing what you have to say on this subject!

Too Old To Love?!

Are you ever too old to love?
Past the age to wink and coo?
I don't mean with someone else.
I mean with the one you're married to.

Is there an age when holding hands
seems redundant childish fare?
Are your kids puzzled when you kiss?
Or are you too old to even go there?

Do your seventy year old parents
still give each other the flirty eye?
Do they openly show affection,
or seem slightly nervous when you walk by?

Do they sit real close together?
Or have the years made them get colder?
Would you be shocked if they spoke softly,
Or saw a head laid on a shoulder?

If you're married all those years,
I think your love should not look flat!
You should be free to show your love.
All of those years should earn you that!