Mother Knows Best

I grew up with a mother who had “visions” so my own psychic ability wasn’t a big deal.  In our household, intuition was “normal” and I didn’t think twice about it until I entered grade school and became aware that for most people, this type of thinking was “weird”.  I was often made fun of for being “different” and I remember how hurtful that was at the time.  Peer pressure is very strong during the formative years and most children want desperately to fit in.  My childhood was a lonely one as I often was made to feel like an alien.

Although my own children have some intuition, neither seemed to have any interest in this type of work.  And frankly, I was relieved as I didn’t want them go through the pain of feeling like an outsider.  I wanted them to have a “normal and happy” life full of friends and parties. But what I never considered was this: just having a mother who worked in the psychic arts made you different.

I recently talked with my children (they are now grown adults) about their experience growing up with a mom who worked as a professional tarot reader.  (I’d like to think that mother knows best.)  Both of them had different viewpoints on the pitfalls and benefits.  And they both admitted to vacillating between thinking I was embarrassing or cool.

My daughter seemed to have a harder time with it as she was a bit shy and struggled to find a peer group – and perhaps it was more difficult for her because as a girl, you identify with your mom and emulate her. (Of course, as we get older, we try in vain NOT to be like our moms! LOL)  I remember coming to her school to pick her up and being stared at like a sideshow curiosity.  The nuns openly hated me with a passion and made that point clear to her (funny how religious people can be hateful, isn’t it?).  In fact, one time I was called into the office after looking at another student’s palm and admonished because my work “conflicted with their religion”.  Naturally, my daughter felt mortified by this and distanced herself from my work.   Suddenly, I was no longer “cool” in her eyes – I was an embarrassment.

At the same time, she also was dealing with another negative person in her life who was trying to convince her that tarot readers “worshipped the devil”.  For a young, impressionable mind these types of events could turn a child against their own parent. No child should ever be subjected to this sort of prejudiced thinking.  I am very saddened when I think that she had to endure these narrow minded mindsets.  These types of ignorant statements forced me to work hard to encourage her to see the value of tarot and how it helps people.  (Being that I couldn’t really have a “take your daughter to work day”, that wasn’t easy to do!)

On the other side of the coin, my son’s biggest issue with my profession is that he couldn’t “get away” with stuff like his friends did.  And forget about ever bringing a potential girlfriend around me as that becomes a nerve wracking pit stained nightmare! (Thankfully for him, I like the current one.)  For him, I’m like a cross between a cop, Judge Judy, Joan Crawford and the woman from Medium. He has quite a few anecdotes about how I’ve been a killjoy in his teenage exploits and experimentations.

He shared this funny story with me:

“In my more formative years, i.e. when I was in high school, I tried many things. Chess club, Amnesty International, even did a few musicals….and I smoked some pot. I remember it like it was yesterday. My friend and I had just partied the day before, and my mother called me the next day. She asked what I did that weekend. I told her about all the music stores we went to, etc., and then she says with a sarcastic and accusatory tone “What else did you do?” I told her that we also watched ‘Pet Sematary’. She persisted: “What else did you do?  Did you party?” I denied everything but later that night, I called her up and came clean. She simply laughed and said,  “I knew it!” I thought, “Damn! I can’t keep anything from her!”

This psychic stuff came in handy for him though as I saved his butt from some potentially serious trouble on more than one occasion. For example, once I refused to let him drive with his friends to a concert and insisted on chaperoning him because I had a “bad feeling” (embarrassing to explain that to your buddies when you are a 16 year old boy!).  But his humiliation was short lived when the next day came and he found out that his friends got busted for possession.  My son says this: “having a psychic for a parent is a very unique situation. It’s something of a double-edged sword: you can’t get away with anything, but you will be protected.”

One of the hardest things about being a psychic parent is knowing when to step back and let your children learn their own lessons.  I’ve actually gotten pretty good at that.  I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut and avoid the “I told you so” routine.  And I rarely do readings for them.  However, on the rare occasions when they ask for one, they have admitted that my work has helped them in a profound way.  My daughter mused on one situation where I “predicted something that completely changed her life” a few years back.  For her, this reading was so healing it made her see the true value of my work – but it also made her angry for “letting a bunch of narrow-minded people” try to teach her to be “embarrassed” about my profession in the past.

As adults, they both admit that the benefits of a psychic parent far outweigh the challenges.  And now they no longer hide in shame when discussing what I do. In fact, they are rather proud to tell people about their “cool” tarot reader mom.  Yup, I’m cool again. Imagine that.

Blessings!

Theresa

https://www.thetarotlady.com

http://www.tarotmentor.com

Do you work in the psychic arts?  How does your family feel about it?  Do you have a family member who reads tarot or works in any other quirky line of work?  If so, were you ever embarrassed by them?  I’d love to hear your stories and thoughts in the comment section below: