Question of the Week: Upbringing

If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

For the most part, I think my folks did a pretty good job bringing me up. I even think they did a good job with my sister too. I look back at my life, and as an adult, I can see that things weren't always the way they seemed on the surface. Like a lot of families, there were problems that were hidden by a happy face and a few lies. I've recently noticed that a lot of people, once they've grown up, do whatever they can to escape their parents' shadow. That could mean moving away or vowing to raise their own kids differently, correcting the mistakes they think their parents made. And there are definitely some mistakes I would like to correct when (and if) I have kids of my own. It's no secret that I eat a lot of crap that's not good for me. So there's a part of me that wishes my parents had forced me to eat better as a child, so I would be conditioned to eat right as an adult. Little things like that would have made a big difference I think. Psychologists like to blame parents for the way kids turn out, and there's a lot of truth in that. But another truth is that parenthood doesn't come with an instruction manual. Mistakes are made. Parents grow as their kids grow. Along the way come growing pains, for everyone involved.

*Question of the Week comes from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.