The older I get, the more I realize how much fun I have when I hang out with my parents. They are people who are basically forced to love me, so I always feel perfectly free to behave unapologetically (whether that behavior is good or bad is for them to decide). Moreover, when I asked my parents which age they enjoyed my siblings and I the most, they replied that although they had fun with us at every age, they really like interacting with us at our current ages. And it’s no wonder why; I no longer feel the need to constantly undermine their superiority (now its only sometimes), I can converse with them about topics that they actually care about (instead of which Scooby doo movie was their favorite), and I constantly look for ways to include them in my life (instead of locking myself in my room, making no noise, and pretending that they don’t exist).

I even call my parents on a semi-regular basis, often armed with a simple question that could easily be answered by a quick Google search. Once the question is safely out of the way (ex: how long is a check good for?—this is an actual question I’ve asked) we talk about what is going on with our lives. So, to the parents out there reading this (AKA my mom and dad) I don’t really need to know how frequently I should be changing my sheets (I did it a couple of days ago, chill). I just want to know how you guys are doing. But, because I am a very mature adult, I need to reassure myself with the fact that our personal conversation is an added bonus to the knowledge I have gained by asking the initial question. I also don’t want to seem like I am wasting your time. I know that you guys have jobs and can’t just drop everything to talk to me. So, in a way, I’m being really considerate. I just have a terrible way of showing it.

To sum this all up: I love hanging out with my parents and I am not afraid to admit it. My parents are pretty much the coolest people that I know and every moment I spend with them teaches me something new. Even if that lesson is that they had a nice lunch that day. I can’t stress to all of you reading this how important it is to spend time talking to or hanging out with your parents. I can promise you that they miss you just as much, if not more, than you miss them at every given moment.