Comments on: Now Now Children

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:42:34 +0000

@Jos
I’m sure your words are true and will ring much truer to those that have gone through the same thing. I’m sure that nothing could substitute for the experience.

Since you agree with my observations about parents, what do you think should be done about them? Personally I think that it’s a fair amount of fault upon them for how their child grows up. Children obviously become adults themselves, but I still think that parents should bear their fair share of the blame.

By: Jos

Jos — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:58:02 +0000

Hi Derek.
Well, to be honest, now that I have children of my own(they’re already 16 and 13 yrs old now), I have to admit that one does seem to change a lot, and not bother so much anymore about things that seemed annoying when without children. On the other hand, with children of your own, you just start being bothered about a whole bunch of other things
And yes, I agree with your observations, some parents just don’t seem to be bothered about anything

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 04:12:30 +0000

@This Eclectic Life
Your words are definitely true. Well at least it seems so from where I’m sitting! Thanks for your reassurance that I’ll do okay somday.

@Jos
Thanks for visiting and commenting Jos! It’s true that people have found the name of my blog very amusing. I also think that it’s pretty funny. It’s also fairly descriptive of what I like to write about.

You raise a good point about being changed yourself once you have kids. Are you speaking from first hand experience?

By: Jos

Jos — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:05:58 +0000

Hi Derek! I am here to pay you a return visit. An interesting log you have here. The name alone is a great find, but I guess that’s what you hear moreoften
Some interesting observations about children you made, not having any of your own. Believe me, if you ever have kids of your own, you will find there is a 50% chance YOU change as well, into a parent that all of a sudden doesn’t see anymore what you ARE seeing now, and there is a 50% chance that it even gets worse
So: no worries for now. Take Care! )

By: This Eclectic Life

This Eclectic Life — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:55:18 +0000

I wouldn’t take for raising mine, Derek, but let me tell you that in the world of parenting, you don’t get “do-overs.” It’s not easy to be on your toes about the things you should do as a parent, because you are also a human! It’s hard even at my age to look back at my parents and realize that they were human beings just like me. You’ll do fine as a parent someday. All you can do is the best you know how to do, and hope that you raise them “right.”

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:24:29 +0000

@This Eclectic Life
Hm well I didn’t intend to mean “colored” as a play on words, but it’s always fun to see what I said from someone else’s perspective! I must say, that’s quite attentive of you.

In any case it’s kind of interesting that the comments on this have to do with my use of the kids’ ethnicities because I had no intention of making it about that. I simply wanted to make it about how I saw a whole bunch of crazy kids! I saw these different kids behaving in such a way, and then I wrote a post about it according to what I was thinking as I saw it. So in that respect, I definitely think that the points span ethnicities.

And thanks for your words of encouragement about kids not having instruction manuals. I guess that’s partly why it’s so rewarding to have kids: it’s so difficult to do it! Things that are extremely difficult to do seem to be the most rewarding, and raising kids is getting higher and higher as I get older.

By: This Eclectic Life

This Eclectic Life — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:39:45 +0000

LOL. I too was a little intrigued by you breaking this down by ethnicity. Your post is “colored?” Was that a play on words? It’s probably not that simple, I think that several of your break downs of the way we raise kids cross color lines. And scared? Yes, you should be very scared. Unfortunately, kids don’t come with instruction manuals, and there are many ways to screw them up.

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:06:54 +0000

@Ms. Q
Yeah I’ll admit that this was a bit more negatively sarcastic than other posts of the same vein. But it all happened, and I’m not making any of it up.

I think that it’s definitely tough raising kids as well as growing up with imperfect parents (as pretty much all of us do). There’s not really an answer, but there is a lot that we can do to minimize the pain, hurt, and long term effects.

When I was writing this post, I didn’t even realize that the part about the Asian was even so applicable to all Asians! Thanks for pointing that out, and even though I didn’t grow up likewise I understand how it works from seeing other people grow up like that.

Well the animals at the zoo were interesting, but those kids sure were, too!

By: Ms. Q

Ms. Q — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:15:22 +0000

Darkly humored indeed. Interesting to break down the Wrong Way to parent by culture/race. Of course I understand #5 – “She’ll learn that your silence is actually your love, caring, and devotion to her. She’ll learn all of that, I’m positive about that!”

I was raised a bit “old school Chinese” in that “Excellence in expected” so you won’t get any recognition for that. Or not much. However, do anything “unexpected” and that will quickly be pointed out.

You had quite the day at the Zoo and you weren’t even watching the animals!