yes! yes! I would love to have been the same age as them .

I think I might have been friends with my mom. She was a bit of a wild child and a lot of fun, but still a nice person.
My dad was kind of a goody-goody, so probably not so much.

Hell no…My parents were fucked up!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness yes! I think my parents are two of the greatest people I know <3 However I’m extremly grateful for the fact they are my parents and were the two people who loved and raised me (still raising in some areas, hehe) – LB

No! My biological was the school bad guy and my mom was a snooty princess, neither would have interested me.

@ElleBee I’m not asking how great they were as parents, I’m asking if you would have gotten along with them in a hypothetical same age situation.

@J0E If I weren’t related to my parents or my sister. We wouldn’t be anywhere even close to the same social circles. I doubt I’d even give them a second glance.

Well my parents didn’t go to the same school as each other. So that’s a problem right there. ASSUMING they did, though…

Nope. Not that we’d be mortal enemies. Just that I keep to my own business and don’t talk to anybody unless spoken to. My parents seem like they did the same in high school. We’d probably graduate without speaking to each other once.

I might be friends with my dad… he was sort of a geek and everyone thought he was gay (turned out they were right).

I wouldn’t be friends with my mom… HUGE druggie.

With my Dad, yes. With my Mom, no.
Good question, JOE!!

@Sarcasm Well, we’re assuming a lot to begin with for this to work.

@J0E yea, that’s what I was saying that I think they are great people and would have been friends with them BUT I’m glad they are my parents and raised me.

Sorry, if it was not the answer you we’re looking for; was just my interpretation ^_^ – LB

My dad was a gear head and as far as I know my mom was a bit of a trouble maker. Yeah, we’d probably hang out.

Maybe, yeah. They were to some extent partiers (like I was) and I think I would’ve liked to hang out with them. They weren’t super popular or anything (though my mom’s best friend was a cheerleader and back then, the cheerleaders were the most popular of them all), but from what they tell me, they got decent grades (my dad always did better than my mom and he had to help were with science because she hated science and wasn’t too good at it…lol). Sounds like fun. Though they did smoke pot sometimes and I never did that!

(My parents became friends in senior year. They dated from 1975–1985 and have been married from 1985 until now).

Not a chance in hell! I’ve heard stories about how they were as teens, and there’s not even a chance I would have considered being friends with them. Interesting question, though.

I’d certainly be friends with my dad. Now that I think about it, I know a little less about what my mom was like as a kid. I will have to ask my grandma, her sisters, and of course, her.

Related: My husband and I always lament not having known one another as kids, because we would have been best friends.

probably not. My mom was SUCH a geek and a total outcast, and my dad was changing schools every year because of his dad’s job so because of that, he never was considered a cool person or popular. But then again, I try to be the one person that like people like that, so I might be one of those people, too. So now that I come to think of it, I probably would!

great question!

Only with my dad, he was the prankster kind. And he still is.

Hell no! I wouldn’t. If I went back the way I am now. My mom was an alcoholic, and my father went to military school. I still don’t know how they lasted 18 yrs.

yes. my parents are fun. they experimented and were particularly fond of marijuana. i think we would have gotten along rather well.

With my father, maybe, he and his brothers may have been a little too rowdy for me. They got into lots of dangerous situations. As for my mother, absolutely. We would have been BFFs.

My dad and I would be best friends. I guarantee it. His stories are the best, and we are basically the same person. My mom was a big loner, so I don’t know if we’d even interact.

my mom might pit the moves on me in the car after taking a drink and trying to smoke.

I’ve thought about this a lot, and the answers are kind of depressing. I think that I would want to be friends with my mom, but that I would be intimidated by her weirdness and coolness. I’m afraid she might have thought I was too boring for her. Maybe once she got to know me, though…

I would have avoided making any real connection to my dad, just would have kept it at pleasantries, maybe a few conversations about music (we’re both musicians—band nerds, really, so that’s an inevitable connection, right there). But that’s it. If I was patient enough to get to know him, though, we would have been friends.

I love this question. I’ve been wanting to ask my mom something along these lines (does she think she would have been friends with me), but she’s so, so private. I’m growing bolder every year, though.

I don’t think I would have ever though about it. I mean my mom was a bit psychotic. I’ve heard the stories, and seen the pictures. And my dad no way. I’m a band geek, but I wasn’t totally into theatre.

Has anyone noticed the preponderance of people saying they could be friends with their fathers but not their mothers? Hmmmm. JOE. You are a freakin’ genius.

@Val123 I don’t know how people disliking their mothers makes me a genius, but thanks…

Heck yes! My mom is awesome! I’d definitely be best friends with her. She’s outgoing and funny. A true social butterfly.
My dad would have been the kid who was the center of attention among his group of friends, but quiet when he wasn’t around them. Given the chance to get to know him, I’d probably be his friend.

@J0E I don’t/didn’t “dislike” my Mom. But I don’t think we would have gotten along in HS. You’re a genius because this was an amazing question, IMO. So amazing I STOLE it!

@J0E Really brilliant Q. Dad – no. Mom, maybe. It’s a tough one.

I think my dad and I would’ve been buddies. Not ZOMGBFFs or anything, but I think our social circles would’ve overlapped in some places and we would’ve hung out and been friendly.

My mother, on the other hand… Absolutely not. Urgh. She’s 60 now and she and her friends are still self-centered drama queens. I can’t imagine she’s ever been anything else.

It is strange how many would be friends with their fathers but not mothers. Maybe this is because mothers tend to do more discipline and dads try to be buddies?

I can’t believe how many GQ’s this has got, I might get a cool new award for this!

My dad maybe. I’d probably actually have a little crush on him, weirdly enough. He was quiet, nerdy, and cute. Maybe I just think that ‘cause I love my daddy. I don’t know about my mom, though.

Neither, I would be much cooler than my parents.

Maybe, as my mom was in marching band, and so was I; also, my dad was in Photo, and so was I. (I didn’t plan it…)

But…my mom was way into sports, and I’m as far away from sports as it’s possible to get (she was a point guard on the basketball team and also played baseball).

My dad was a nerd’s nerd. I think. (Way into Star Trek…and Star Wars…and Jurassic Park…which are things I like, but because of him, not in spite of.) I honestly don’t know much about either parent’s highschool years, so it’s hard to say.

No. In her day, she was a drop-out and hung with the kids who smoked, drank and carried on like hellions. She was “cool”. I wasn’t like that. In my day, I was the semi-nerdy type who wore glasses, watched Python, read a lot of books, was on the student council and had good grades. I have no idea what my father was like as I never knew him, so for him, I can’t say.

I guess had I lived during her adolescence, I would have been a Beatles fan, a band her crowd most definitely DID NOT like, and I would’ve at least gone to the March on Washington, which she wasn’t interested in. I’m sure she’d’ve been one of the people who’d’ve called me a ‘wannabe’.

I’m not entirely sure what my dad was like in high school. From what I do know, I think he was an extremely nervous, polite and nerdy loner, so I’m not sure we ever would have hung out. Don’t think I would have disliked him, but I probably just wouldn’t have gotten to know him, through his own… hermitude. (I think I just invented that word, haha.)

My mother I don’t think I would have been friends with. Maybe friendly acquaintances. I was not a huge partier in high school, but my mom takes purity to a whole new level. She wanted to be a nun in her teenage years, and didn’t shake the idea till she met my father when she was in her mid-20s. I get along with her well now, but I think she would have annoyed me in high school.

I’m a lot like my mom, so I think we could have been friends. My dad, I don’t know… I don’t really know enough about how he was then to be able to say. I guess remembering how he was as my dad (he was 41 when I was born) gets in the way; I have a hard time imagining him when he was young.
@fireinthepriory my son’s ex wanted to be a nun, then married my son, then decided to be a man. Go figure.

No. Probably not. I kept to myself most of high school, until I met my best friend/significant other.

Mom was the drunken rebel runaway who quit school at 16 and got knocked up with me at 18 while living above a bar in Detroit. Bio-father sperm-donor had just gotten out of prison for auto theft and was a heroin addict when he knocked on the wrong apartment door and found my mom that day.

I was the goody two-shoes who got good grades, did Quiz Bowl and Science Olympiad, and went to college.

So, probably not.

My parents went to a private high school that was full of hippies. My dad had a really bad mustache and was in a garage band, and my mom had these huge coke bottle glasses. Both of my parents were probably a bit spoiled when they were teenagers, but I think it would have been fun to hang out with them. :)

Am I going back in time as who I am now or as who I was when I was in school? Those would be different answers.

I usually duck all the “If you…, would you…” speculative questions, but this one caught my interest. Very creative.

@Jeruba: I think the question could be answered either way. I’m still in 8th grade, so I didn’t have that problem. I think I would answer it as myself now, not the person I was back then.

@Jeruba Back in time to be the same age as your parents in high school.

As me, no f’n way. If I had to translate who I am now to who I might have been in the 50’s, I still say no. Dad was a jock and mom’s only focus was school. I think I might have been a beatnik.

I think @Jeruba is wondering what mind frame to be in while answering the question. In other words, are you supposed to be thinking like you now or you at that age.

Yes, that was my question, @sarah826. When I was in high school, I was very much my parents’ daughter. I had taken few steps away from where I began. So I probably would have been a person just like my parents were in school and hung with the same crowd. I might have even been my parents.

College, though—what a difference. College did not turn out the way they expected for me, but it sure did bring some new experiences into my life. I never thought (before this question) to place us side by side in that way, but I probably would have been interested in dating a man like my father if only he hadn’t been so religious. I doubt that I would have got along well with my mother at all.

By now, I am a long, long way from where I was in either high school or college, and both of my parents stayed fairly close to their origins. If I went back now, I doubt that I would even think to look for any common ground because I would not expect to find it; we would disapprove of each other. But we would end up in some of the same classes, and we might indeed find each other interesting if we could get past the stereotypes and prejudices.

I would be definitely friends with my dad, he was a real joker as well as having similar academic interests to my own. I doubt I would have the opportunity to become friends with my mum, because her schools discouraged any sort of contact between genders. Given the right opportunity though, I would have been.

nice q
thinking of my parents in high school is ridiculous, lol
it’s like a different reality
they had to be communists and I’d probably order them around as I’d probably be some sort of leader…I’d probably get along with my mom more than my dad who was way more ‘i’m a man you’re a woman lick my toes’ kind of person…obviously if I grew up in their time that wouldn’t bother me as much…

I hope none of you have an Oedipus complex since you’re all so keen to spend time with your parents in high school. As for me, no thanks, I wouldn’t have disliked them, but I don’t think we would have had the same interests to even meet.

Yeahh! It would be awesome! :) I’d like to see how they acted when I wasn’t around or looking.:)

@markyy Not sure how seeing your parents as actual people you might enjoy knowing without the parent/kid relationship could lead you to think any of us would want to think of them sexually…

@Likeradar I didn’t really say that anyone here is in love with their parents. So why would I bring it up? The question reminded me of the movie: Back to the Future, where (if I recall correctly) Marty mcFly’s mother has a big crush on him. And of course that got me thinking, that could happen the other way around, hence the Oedipus complex.

Anyway lighten up a little, it was a harmless little joke and I answered the question in the process. The lady doth protest too much, methinks ;P

Great question.

Funnily enough, I’d probably be friends with my mum and not my dad back then. Which is the opposite when you have them as parents.

My dad was a very reserved and shy kid. He studied all the time and was no fun to be with. His older brother (my uncle Jim) always played jokes on people, skipped classes and never studied. He’d be a lot more fun to be with, a Tom Sawyer type that could not just ride a horse, but also did acrobatics on it, and eventually made money hunting rabbits in the Australian bush (and spent it all on booze, women and gambling). In the meantime, my dad studied and became a teacher, a stable family man with strict morals. And a great dad.

My mum (who is crap as a mother nowadays) was a fun girl back in her time from what her friends tell me. Not wild or anything, but I discovered some of her old vinyl albums and she used to listen to the sort of stuff I like to. Music was banned at home when I was a kid, especially after I announced I’d become a professional musician (they wouldn’t even let me go near my sister’s piano after that). But I bet back when she was a student, my mum used to go to parties and concerts and dance a lot. And she was an intelligent girl (which was what turned her into a cunning and unscrupulous businesswoman later in life). I might even date someone like that (she would not be my mum in that scenario obviously). Which is exactly what my poor dad did! lol

Absolutely would have been friends with them. He was charismatic; had women chasing after him and he was so intelligent and charming (not with me). She was bubbly, kind of wild, beautiful and sweet.