This weekend I took a break from partying in the Queen City to spend some quality time with the family for Mother’s Day. Believe it or not, even a nightlife writer has to have some down time. My hometown is only an hour and a half away, and yet I still managed to need to stop and take a nap halfway through.
Trinity, North Carolina, is pretty small, so the lack of nightlife in my area combined with a shortage of unmarried and childless friends usually leads to a lot of long nights with the parental units.
It’s funny — now that I’m a young professional and have been out of my parents’ home a while, it can be quite overwhelming navigating our relationship. Case in point: My parents have a key to my apartment, which means they can show up at any time, whether I am present or not. Imagine coming home to a squeaky clean apartment that you know you left a pigsty. Exactly. No time for parent-proofing. Talk about an FML moment.
I spend most of my time convincing my friends, co-workers and myself that I have it together, but my parents can always see right through it. Throw alcohol and partying in the mix and I might be the next lost cause featured on Intervention. I’m not the only one, right?
This weekend, we decided to celebrate Mother’s Day listening to jazz at a local winery. Finding Zimmerman Vineyards was like finding a diamond in the rough. When I said my hometown has no nightlife, I mean, there isn’t even a Food Lion or Walmart in the city limits. But worse: the entire county is dry.
The day started off high-stress. My mom’s picnic dinner, which would accompany “my wine drinking” to keep the buzz under control, was complete with six different fruits, five different vegetables, spreadable cheeses, chicken salad, croissants, white bread and Pepsi. To top it off, we were also on a strict time schedule. Instead of enjoying a relaxing Saturday with family and friends, my parents instead put a lot of pressure on themselves to host the day’s activities.
Mom had invited a co-worker and her family and then a couple of family friends, but the only other person even remotely close to my age was too young to drink and had been given DD status. I thought for sure I would be doing all the heavy lifting — read, heavy drinking — on my own. But surprisingly, I had a blast with my parents and their friends.
Looking for city fun that is parent-approved? There’s plenty of that in the Queen City. In fact, my parents are coming this way this weekend for a golf tournament and house hunting — no, not for them, for me. I began planning things I could do with them that they would enjoy and that would make me look more like a well-rounded Charlottean instead of a drunken wannabe college student. Here’s what I came up with.
Food Truck Friday: A South End staple, Food Truck Friday is both kid-tested and parent-approved. Park your car or ride the light rail, sneak a flask and go enjoy the best food truck food the Queen City has to offer. Most people bring a blanket on a cool summer night, grab dinner and then enjoy dessert. It starts at 5 p.m. and even though it lasts all year long, this time of year is probably the best time to enjoy it.
Science on the Rocks at the Discovery Place: My mom took me to the Discovery Place quite a few times when I was younger, so heading back to this spot with her for an adults-only event will definitely be a fun walk down memory lane. This week, the theme is “The Birds & The Bees” — which may or may not be appropriate, now that I’m thinking about it.
Studio Movie Grill in the EpiCentre: My family and I are huge movie buffs. While it can be challenging to get them to stay up past 9 o’clock to enjoy a movie, taking the parents to see a movie at Studio Movie Grill is definitely a one-of-a-kind experience. And if your parents are like my parents, they will love to have a coffee and sit outside of Enso’s downstairs and watch drunk people after the movie is over.
Needless to say, navigating a visit with parents, whether at their home or yours, can be interesting. It may take two bottles of wine, but having fun with the folks who raised you — and subsequently punished you — is definitely doable. You just have to plan accordingly for a PG event.