Posted on 04/14/2016 12:27:24 PM PDT by metmom
Parents of grown children, please sit down. I have some harsh news for you. Your kids don't want your stuff. Don't take it personally. It's not that they don't love you. They don't love your furniture.
The china hutch, the collectible figurines, your antique map or thimble collection, the sideboard, all those family treasures may hold many precious moments for you, but for your kids, not so much.
Ouch. Yes, I know you think you're being generous. Yes, I know you paid good money for these things. Yes, I know kids can seem unappreciative. Yes, I know it was part of your family's history. And, yes, I know it still contains some useful life. I also know that deep down, you believe your kids will change their minds.
That is pure fantasy.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Mahogany is a relatively light wood.
Grew up with it.
Mahogany and Orientals and lots of antiques
Mine are interested in their ancestry and somewhat interested in the stuff.
The problem is, my son and his wife will be getting a lot of stuff form HER family when the time comes.
Eventually everyone on those old 8mm films will be dead and that DVD will wind up in the trash.
That's the sad truth.
I have had a couple of clients run into the issue of having to get rid of parental or grandparental porn. and gadgets.
It was difficult for them and made them angry.
AMEN!
Please realize that tradition is good but stuff is just stuff. It is not in our heritage to gsther the amount of junk that people in America gathered in the second half of the 20th century. Our earlier ancestors had less. A lot less. In Europe, where I lived for a decade and learned to pare down, apartments and storage is small. Fewer clothes, fresher food replenished almost daily, and only the most important of possessions is all anyone has room for.
I love tradition and history, but I don’t want a ton of “things.” Of course everyone loves to have more useful items for their hobby or sport, that is different. And art on the walls doesn’t take up too much space.
Trying to cut back on a lot of stuff now - trouble is, much of it does have special meaning and fond memories for me - hard to let go sometimes.....
I have some high school age nieces and a nephew who might like some of their grandmother’s stuff hen it’s time to go out on their own, so I’m going to ask them about it.
If they want it, we are in a position to hold onto it for a FEW years.
If no one wants it, it’s going.
I’ll garage sale it and not worry about whether I could have gotten more for it somewhere else.
That's a good question.
At this point in my life I have chosen Ammo and Junk Silver.
(Ammo not welcomed by my In-Laws so there is another problem)
I think I may say screw it and just paint Bob Ross Masterpieces, Enjoy myself and hope that I do actually paint something worth more than the Canvas and Oils cost.
(The Painting is always worth more after you are gone)
I will always love and respect my late mother-in-law for eliminating any such problem. When she was well up in years, but still healthy, mobil and with all her marbles, she had her 3 sons and their wives to her place and went over all her valuable furniture and furnishings, asking who wanted what. She marked each piece so that when she died there was no argument, no problem. Everything else went to Salvation Army.
My father in law recently passed away, sold several original reel-to-reel tapes for several hundreds of dollars each. You know, original Beatles, Doors, John Lennon, etc. Watching the eBay bids was surreal.
Took an antique hutch and a Bose stereo that rocks. Oh, and some fantastic family pictures....
Sadly, my kids will have a thumb drive of pics, and will likely care to keep little else. Though they may prove me wrong!
Dear Lord, I have not even pondered what they might do with my firearms..... Need to have some discussions!
Not our children, they’ve already told us which items, antiques, in the house they want.
Nor a Southern one, Gramma’s silver is always wanted!
I cherish everything left to me of my Mom’s and Dad’s.
I have the letters my father wrote to my mother when he was in the Air Force. There is also a telegram from him telling her he was waiting for England. “Travel arrangements made stop Can’t wait to see you darling stop Bring silverware stop Love A stop
My aunt laughed when I read it to her. My father the practical romantic, she said it sounded just like him. He was an engineer. lol
My grandfather wrote a family genealogy of his side of the family after he retired. He knew the family stories but needed proof to join Sons of the American Revolution. When I turned 18 my gift from him was membership in the Daughters of the Am Rev. Both my children are interested in family history. They have laid flowers at the grave of their GGGG uncle who died at Chancellorsville. We have pictures of the marked graves of their ancestors who fought in the Revolution. We know where they are buried but have not been able to get there...yet. :)
I have 5 kids in their 50’s and they all have furniture of mine/of course they were antiques. A few I paid over 800 dollars for. OOPS one got rid of everything and sold his house, business and is living on a 54 foot sail boat in Florida...
Oops telegram from Daddy telling Mother he was waiting anxiously for her to join him in England.
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