Dad never was a talker until he had his stroke. He became a nicer person after that. Mom was afraid of him. He never hit her but she was never sure he wouldn’t because of his temper. I’m sure Mom wanted conversation with him at the table after being with five kids all day. LOL
Dad did things by the old Scottish standards. Girls didn’t matter. Boys mattered. Not saying he didn’t love the girls but women were supposed to stay quiet and do what they were told. I’m the oldest but my oldest brother (4 years younger than me) was given all the responsibility. I wanted to go into the Air Force when I graduated at 17 and he had a fit! I wanted to go to college and he said “women are on this earth for one thing and that’s to get married and have babies”, so, I had to wait until I was grown, married, and working to go to college.
I just shake my head when I hear young women today complain about not having rights.
Dad was good, just old-fashioned in his thinking.
It’s amazing how we all had such different upbringings in similar eras, but different parts of the country. I’m lucky I was raised relatively free of sexual stereotypes, because that would have made things much harder. I don’t have a domestic bone in my body. My younger brother and I were pretty much free to pursue our interests, except that being the black sheep, I got laughed at by our dad, who thought I’d never be able to earn a living. My brother has multiple degrees and had an engineering career, I became a college dropout in short order, and traveled far away at first to pursue my dreams. I never envied my brother, even though he made more money than I did. I always thought my life was far more interesting.