With the class discussion over ageism and how we shared all of our experiences really got me thinking. First of all, this whole idea of privacy wasn't a question in my household. As a child I had no choice but to share a room with somebody. If it wasn't my sisters it was my mom and if it wasn't in my mom's room it was staying in the living room. I never had much trouble with this because it happened from the day I was born to about 13. By the time I was 13 all my siblings had moved out and only left me, my mom and her boyfriend. I of course, was left with a room of my own. Since then I continued to have a room for myself. I was always very independent as soon as my father left. I was left to do "my own thing". Hardly any questions were asked, I followed what I believed were "rules" but in reality there was none. I had my own car that I payed gas for and my insurance. I payed my own cellphone bill; all this at the age of 16. And then at 18 I was on my own at The University of Texas at Austin.
Well enough about my personal monologue. During our class discussion Maijah brought up a very interesting idea. Shen mentioned this cycle that we all go through. The idea that when we are kids we have our parents to enforce rules and make decisions for us. Then we get into our teen years where as teenagers we believe we can make our own decisions and rebel and it's a constant fight with our parents. That occurs until we get older and we can finally make our own decisions. We get a taste of what freedom really is!! After we have continued our life and probably have our own family we take on the role of provider and care taker to our parents. Our parents as elders have our role of when we were kids and would want to rebel. After we go through that we find ourselves in our parents position having our kids take our "freedom" and they become our care takers.
I found this whole cycle I hadn't even thought of extremely interesting!
I leave you with your thoughts....
Irene,
ReplyDeleteI totally see the cycle thing and I think it's true. I like how Shelby added that there is really an never ending cycle of control. I raised my niece with my sister and often I would catch her talking to my little brother the way my sister and I spoke to her so the cycle went on! It's crazy to think about it but it happens. Best thing to do is to give space, like really give kids their space and listen.