[Livia]

That's crazy and mixed up, TS. I didn't know anyone with a dishwasher when I was a kid, even a broken one. Do you have a good relationship with your parents now? Is that too personal...?

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

That's crazy and mixed up, TS. I didn't know anyone with a dishwasher when I was a kid, even a broken one.

Exactly! We had a dishwasher when I was 6 - so that's 1991. No one I knew had one, they were extortionate and cost a fortune to run, but it was "A New Thing!" so that meant my dad had to buy one .

Originally Posted by Livia

Do you have a good relationship with your parents now? Is that too personal...?

They separated when I was 18 and that was even stranger, as my mum lost her career and was on disability, living in a pretty rough area and my dad lived in a brand new bachelor flat kitted out with gadgets because he was a 50 year old man with a good income living like a teenager . So I bounced back and forward twice a week between a grotty council flat at the weekends (all my friends still lived around where my mum was) and a kitted out flat during the week (...because it was just a nicer place to live...) until I moved away for Uni.

My mum died (liver failure; it never got better) 5 years ago. I get on fine with my dad. He semi-retired at 55, moved into a literal granny-flat where he planned to live out his days, THEN he met a woman 4 years older than me and now they're married and live in a very nice, well maintained house that she bought them with her divorce money from her first marriage and they live off HER middle-income and his pension... he blatantly just needs someone to take care of him when it comes to practical stuff. But she's young so when he's properly elderly, he's her problem now!


I swear I had THE most vanilla childhood up until I was about 12 and then it went full on soap opera .