Look, ma. I found a hobby

What we’re not going to do, is be a burden.

As we say in the South, I come by this instinct honestly.

“Any idiot can get pregnant,” Grammy used to say. “Get yourself an education.” Joke’s on her. Getting pregnant actually required a lot of planning for my lesbian sister.

Mom’s pressure to be self-sufficient was somehow even more direct. “I just don’t want you to be a drain on society,” she’d say. She was also concerned about us becoming “drug-addicted prostitutes” (impressively prescient, at least in my case).

My dad’s parenting is a tad more “Show, don’t tell.”