I don’t often write about being a parent but something happened last night that I woke up this morning thinking a great deal about. Growing up I didn’t think of my parents as equals, or friends. They always seemed above me in knowledge, judgement, and experience. I had an absolutely wonderful childhood, I respected them and looked up to them both. To this day I think very very highly of my parents and that will never change. However I think back to the times things weren’t so great. I honestly forget how human they both are.
Mom and Dad are older people whom have lived lives well before me “Duh”. In more recent years I have come to terms with this idea. They aren’t beyond human and have experienced different things that I will never come to understand. Reasons for doing what they do that I can’t comprehend. Not because I’m dumb “which is up for debate” but because experience speaks for what we do with our time. I think about things that are easy to understand now that won’t be so easy later on.
For example Media at one point in my life was a set of only 3 things. Radio, TV “with 12 channels”, and Newspapers. When I started my job back in 2004 myself and a older gentleman who passed a few years ago would put together newspapers every Sunday. It was 300 papers.. Today it’s maybe 5 which is a dramatic difference. By the time my daughter is old enough to care we might not have any newspapers. I lived in a time that I had to walk to Blockbuster to rent films, went to physically buy musical Albums, didn’t have options like looking over my phone to find new music. It was all word of mouth, clubs, and if I was lucky Pirate radio stations.
Now I think about what adults today have to deal with. Taking to heart information they will never understand. Living to see A.I. Manipulate Facts from Fiction. I mean think about this for a moment back in 1990 Fox news was actually a good news station that explained the happenings of the day, possible weather reports, and political commentary that we actually couldn’t FACT CHECK. hell the idea of questioning news in those days was impossible to fathom even because why would THEY LIE?
Of course we later learned and advanced the way we did and now we understand point of view is very important when reporting anything. So what does any of this have to do with Parenting? I say of all that to explain a very difficult thing that is as a person while you should be open minded to everything somethings in life are built on comfort. You will fight for comfort because you can’t know any better. Not that you don’t want to it’s just what you believe YOU CAN’T. Mental health is a big problem today but what needs to really be addressed is that some of these problems REQUIRE TIME. You can constantly repeat the same thing to someone for years and years and years and it won’t click until it HAS TOO.
Living with people who have a mindset different from your own can be difficult. You would think it would just take some sort of logical problem solution to get past it but often again Experience speaks for itself and it’s not always right. I am hoping to keep an open mind with my co-workers, friends, family and so on but often I find myself losing hope in some of the most ignorant crap I have ever heard in my life. It’s like saying a person is a Geologist who has never seen a rock. A person who can quickly make judgement without any research but word of mouth or experience in the matter.
I think all people have a hard time dealing with there parents. After all they are people who kinda we don’t get too choose are in our lives but should be happy if they do stay.