Parent

Parent used to be a noun.  I had a parent.  Now is a verb.  People parent.  In my experience with my parent, the noun was less involved than was the verb of today.  Today, many a child has their daily life planned out by the parent.  The child has some say, that is a choice between this or that, but there is always a this or that.  Parent as a noun says, “Figure it out.”  Example: I get up and my Mom has no plan for me beyond some chores.  She would not say, “What do you want to do?”  She had her own life as a parent, the noun.  She did not see her job as figuring out my day or my life.  I got care and love yes, but not activities or events or new skills.  If I wanted to do something, then go do it and be home at thus and so. If I wanted to go and learn something she would have taken me and paid for it, but I would first have to figure it out.  My Mom was not worried about me living in the basement when I was 30.  And when I called home a continent away and wanted to come home at 27, she said, “No.”  Go figure it out.  Grow up.  And I did figure it out eventually, which is what my parents had taught me to do.  I am still figuring it out.  It makes life interesting and engrossing.