Growing up, I was never able to get in on the latest technology trends due to my mother’s distrust in electronics.
My dad did all the driving for the family because she refused to touch a driving wheel, she hated computers, and she only kept a basic landline phone in the house in order to take and send calls.
When we finally got a t.v. it was only for the basic news channels and nothing more. I always thought this was so unfair due to how my friends had cable t.v., internet, and cellphones, but there was no talking my mom into allowing them and my dad simply went along with it. As he put it, it wasn’t a fight we could win. However, these days I realize there was something she did make an exception for – my mother always doted on our HVAC system. She was the only one allowed the adjust the thermostat and I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t running either the heating or cooling in the house. We couldn’t get a dishwasher since she said it would make us lazy and it took a lot of convincing to get a microwave into the house, but the air conditioning and furnace were things she refused to live without. I honestly think she would have rathered given up the refrigerator to take away the food’s cooling than to give up her own temperature control. I mentioned this to my dad recently and he laughed, glad that someone else had noticed her HVAC obsession. If either of us try to mention it to her, though, she does everything she can to avoid the topic. Despite the unfairness, I’m glad she allowed the HVAC system in the house. Growing up without it wouldn’t have been pleasant.