I was about eight years old. My parents were taking to me yet ANOTHER Irooni family party on a Friday night. As we rolled up in our Mercedes Benz, my mom took a look out the window and said, “Ahhh so-and-so is here?! Dammit aslan hoselash ra nadaram, Khanoume whoever is always bragging about how much better her kids are in school than Sarah.”

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We get out of the car and as we enter the party, my mother makes me go over to each of the guests to “ghashang salam konam.” As we approach the dreaded Khanoum Hater, my mom’s grasp on my shoulder tightens. She greets us nicely and then proceeds to ask me how my grades are (how bad can your grades really be at that age anyway…) Then she starts talking about how her children are doing multiple extracurriculars… bla bla bla… which I promptly responded to by saying, “My mom says you always talk about your kids… too much.” I WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD. My mom laughs nervously and pulls me aside to scold me… “Why would you say such a thing?!” My obvious response? “I was just repeating you! And telling the truth!!” My mother snaps back, “Never say things like that again, ZESHTEH!!!!!”

Granted, what I said was completely inappropriate. But after that day, I was forever silenced by my parents, “No don’t say anything, ZESHTE.” So I grew up being this quiet, polite little girl (obviously that didn’t resonate throughout my adult life, but it worked for the time being). I know we all have different stories about how our parents shut us up so that we wouldn’t embarrass them within our Iranian communities- what are your stories? Tune into Iranican tonight to hear about how our co-hosts were forced to stand on the sidelines while their parents did the “polite” talking that was ONLY allowed at the typical Iranian get-together.

Iranian Live Talk Show airs on RadioJavan.com every other Wed @ 7PM, every other Fri at 9AM on Radio Bamdad Sacramento, and is available for podcast on Iranican.com.