It's what parents do....

....sooner or later your parents will embarrass you.

At various stages in my life I felt embarrassed by something my parents said or did. But that was a long time ago. As I grew older and more understanding  - and most importantly, less concerned about what I imagined others think - I lost that youthful sensitivity to parental behaviour.

But a few memories came rushing back following an exchange on Andrew's blog. Somehow my comment on that blog caused Andrew to think about sex. Not just sex but 'hot sex', if you please. I wasn't thinking of sex at all when I wrote my comment. I've carefully re-read my words and don't see any trigger for sex in them. That my comment caused Andrew to turn to thoughts of sex, as the saying goes, says more about him than it does about me.

Anyway, having suggested thoughts of parental sex, 'icky' or otherwise, Andrew has stirred memories in me.

I recall, as a pre-teenager, that first thing each Sunday morning about twenty minutes was set aside for some personal activity behind almost closed bedroom doors. I was too young and naive to understand the nature of that activity although in later years I recognised that my parents were engaging in...ahem...some horizontal folk dancing.

Vertical folk dancing

Many years later when my parents were probably not much older than I am now I recall the three of us were on a long car drive. Father behind the wheel, me in the passenger seat and mother on the backseat. My mother leant forward, tapped me on the shoulder and with an odd look of dreamy smugness on her face, informed me that she and my father had 'made love' that morning.

Like Andrew's comment I have no idea what caused my mother to disclose this personal information. I suspect that by that time their participation in folk dancing had entered a long hiatus and so this return to the dance floor, so to speak, was worthy of announcement.

My father clearly was uneasy with my mother's disclosure. Later on I thought he might have puffed his chest at this confirmation of senior virility. I had no idea what to say in response, so I said nothing. I don't know why the thought of one's parents having sex should cause embarrassment. Most of us wouldn't exist without that act of sex. Anyway, it was probably the last time my parents caused me to feel embarrassed.