Lost Childhood

Ξ February 14th, 2009 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Introspection | ∇ , , |

I proudly admit that during my child hood (pre teen years), I had a ZX Spectrum 128k + 2. My first PC came later, two years before I entered entered the university. And the Internet only became available during my undergraduate studies. For this I must admit that every business of the heart (or should I say business of the ‘raging hormones’) was handled face-to-face with the loved one.

I was somehow shocked to learn that more than half of the Portuguese population prefers to use instant messaging tools instead of face-to-face communication to exchange their “most intimate thoughts”! Even worst than that was learning that of about 31 weekly hours (1612 annual hours) each teen uses only 87 annual hours looking at soft-porn… preferring to spend their on-line period looking for diet recipes or researching about cosmetic surgeries!

Let’s see if I understand kids today. They prefers to stay at home ‘chatting’ instead of having an actual date, and they use the Internet for things other than searching for porn…

I’m feeling old!

 

Overcompensation

Ξ March 26th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Family, Introspection | ∇ , , , |

My childhood was not always sad or completely unlucky. In fact, there are set of memories that I wish I could completely erase, but those events will be the focus of some other post on this blog. Also, I had my share of toys and gadgets when I was little, but I tended to destroy or lose them very often. This means that none of them lasted until today and results in some kind of the feeling of not having any toys back then.

The title points to another moment of introspection. One that starts by defining the process by which a psychologic deficiency inspires exaggerated correction, called overcompensation, and one that I must admit I often do.

This is the reason or maybe just an excuse for what I find to be overcompensating for my daughter. She has a lot of toys, and very often I fall the her whims (like last weekend when her room got a new coat of paint… pink!). The overcompensation also extends to school matters, in which the expectations tend to exceed the normal course of learning.

I’ve researched around (using google, of course) and the main feeling is that it’s normal for parents to overcompensate. Nevertheless it’s important to control how must overcompensation is let loose.

I do everything hoping to be a better parent.