Astrology: I mean, when you start sentences with phrases like, “Well, since Mercury is in retrograde…” and “Mars is in his 7th house…,” things start to move from normalcy to very hippish. Receiving Moon Sign books for Christmas gifts and wondering if my mail was delivered late because of how the planets and stars were positioned are common thoughts in my head. Words like ascendant, retrograde and transit were commonly used and understood in our household. Understanding astrology and appreciating the complexity of it is by far my most fav hippie-trait my mom taught me… however, that could just be my Libra moon talking.
Nature is Awesome: No really, nature is awesome!
Well, at least to one hippie-dippie mom, nature is God’s greatest gift. This
woman doesn’t take vacations, no, she takes field trips. Her latest trip was a
weekend road trip to Mammoth Lakes ,
CA (a good 8 hour drive from
where she lives), to do nothing but take early morning pictures of the turning
leaves and to collect pinecones. Yep, she waited until this hippie website told
her the exact time to go (which was like a two day window) and she went. And
boy did she come back with a car full of the largest dang pinecones and coolest
sunrise pics of lakes and turning leaves. She has collections of sand, leaves,
driftwood, pinecones, bark (bark?), shells, coral and my fav, sticks. Just last
week, she left my house carrying practically half a tree because she wanted the
branches and sticks to decorate her house with (they look especially great with
all the dang pinecones).
Bad words are A-Flippin’-Okay: Ok, so my mom doesn’t swear too often (define: too often) but when she does, she goes all out. But what I love most is that she doesn’t judge others when they might slip in a naughty word or two. I’m not big on using swear words because I’m constantly surrounded by little people with great hearing and a knack for repeating. I’d call myself more of an ‘emotional swearer’, but my mom, to her they are just words used to emphasize what one is trying to convey. In true hippie form, her definition of swear words is literally, “just passionate words.” I’m much more straight laced to her hippie ways and still feel it important to earmuff my kids when using such language… but you can always count on mom to throw out a good old curse word in the middle of family dinner and not even bat an eye.
Bad words are A-Flippin’-Okay: Ok, so my mom doesn’t swear too often (define: too often) but when she does, she goes all out. But what I love most is that she doesn’t judge others when they might slip in a naughty word or two. I’m not big on using swear words because I’m constantly surrounded by little people with great hearing and a knack for repeating. I’d call myself more of an ‘emotional swearer’, but my mom, to her they are just words used to emphasize what one is trying to convey. In true hippie form, her definition of swear words is literally, “just passionate words.” I’m much more straight laced to her hippie ways and still feel it important to earmuff my kids when using such language… but you can always count on mom to throw out a good old curse word in the middle of family dinner and not even bat an eye.
Censorship: My
mom is a firm believer that we shouldn’t censor our kids and we should let them
learn and grow at their own pace. If that means teaching them about sex when
they’re five because they asked where babies come from (HELLO baby making!)
then so be it (thanks mom). Letting your elementary school kids and their
friends watch Major League and Pretty Woman as their sleep over movie makes for
an open minded parent and teaches real life lessons, right? I brought this up
once to my mom now that I myself am a parent and how totally wrong it was for me
to LOVE these movies as a third grader, and she just laughed it off and
mentioned how she thought my daughter (now 8) would love Pretty Woman. I simply
replied with a huge eye roll, “No freaking way.”
Minimalism: One should only ever have enough stuff
to fill the back of an old El Camino. Enough said.
Laissez-faire(ness): There was this one time I did something
stupid and got in major trouble. I was 15. Well, after a minor blow up between
my mom and me, and me sulking in my room and hating my life (you know, as only
a 15 year old girl can), I hear my mom yell up to me and ask me to come out. I
was like, “heck no!” and she was all, “I just wanted to know what you wanted
for lunch and if you wanted to go with me to get it?” Ummm, was she serious?
That’s the thing with my mom, even after sneaking out, getting pulled over by
the police at 3:00 in the morning for driving without a license and running a
stop sign, getting brought home in the back of a police car, and getting said
car impounded, she was still nice and accommodating once the anger went way,
which it ALWAYS did. If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to talk to my daughter
for a loooong while and there would be major repercussions. But not my mom! She
said I was just trying to do the right thing (which I was) and that it didn’t
call for punishment. I learned early on that punishments weren’t something I
would ever experience and came to appreciate her for her ability to forgive and
forget so easily and for her overall laissez-faire
approach to parenting.
From being a freethinker and having the ability to read the stars, to showing others compassion, and respecting our earth and the beauty with which she provides, I'd say are all lessons that this very none-hippie chick learned from her very hippie mama and hope to pass on to my children in one way or another. I'm so grateful for my mom and the beauty in her hippie ways.
I love your hippie mom! How wonderful that you learned all these skills from her. I think I have a little bit of hippie in my soul and I just want to know, how many of these things will you teach your kids?
ReplyDelete#ManicMondays
Hi Mariet! Yes, she is pretty awesome! I will teach my kids all of them, however, my mom is doing a pretty good job at it already! My daughter loves to be in the garden with Grandma and has a similar spirit...they are so much alike. I'm a bit more conservative so I will probably wait to introduce some of these lessons, but I appreciate how honest my mom is in all aspects and want to pass that on to my children.
DeleteThank you for reading...have a wonderful week!!
xx
I think I love your mom - sounds like you had a wonderful childhood! I had 60s parents who were in no way hippies - so it's fun to read the other perspective! - Louise
ReplyDeleteI am SO jealous of you being raised by your mom, but thankful that I'm somehow accidentally right on track to be a hippie mom myself. What an awesome lady your mom seems and such wonderful values! I only hope my children can have such kind, fond memories of me someday :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool post! Thank you for sharing. Makes me miss my not-so-hippy momma!
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