The Best Habits Are Those We Inherited From Our Parents

When we were young, many of us vowed never to turn into our parents. We viewed their opinions and habits as old-fashioned and out-of-sync.

Then, one day in adulthood, we realized we’d inherited habits and behaviors from our parents that weren’t so terrible after all.

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Stephanie Golden, an author, does housekeeping tasks the way her mother taught her. She keeps a rag bag of torn-up sheets, t-shirts, and other old fabrics that aren’t usable in their original form.

“They’re good for dusting, applying furniture polish, whatever you need a rag for,” she told AARP Experience Counts . Golden is pleased that she doesn’t have to pay for expensive cleaning cloths made of synthetics. “It satisfies my need not to waste stuff. I like giving objects a second life.”

Her mother also taught her to iron a shirt in a specific order: collar, sleeves, front pockets, rest of front and, finally, the back. “I continued doing that on shirts I wore when I had a full-time job, and it worked well,” she said.

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I used to poke fun at the way my first-generation American mother set the dining room table days or even a week ahead of family holiday dinners. The tablecloth and candlestick holders were ready. Until the event, we had to eat meals standing up.

As an adult, I inherited her habit. It gave me a sense of control and preparation, reducing my nervousness about whether the event would be a success. 

Dr. Julian De Silva has found that women “start turning into their mothers” around age 33, particularly after having a baby, and men start behaving like their fathers a year later. These behaviors include adopting the same hobbies and speech patterns and sharing their parents’ political views and monetary habits.

“We all turn into our parents at some point in our lives—and that is something to be celebrated,” he has said.

Liane Kupferberg Carter, a writer in Scarsdale, New York, told AARP Experience Countsshe turns off lights in her son’s bedroom and bathroom, which might not save a lot of money but feels wasteful left on.