Reply to How old are you? Are you more open minded than your parents?

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "How old are you? Are you more open minded than your parents? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I'm 44 and yes, I am more open minded than my parents. They are late 70s.

They were raised in abusive Catholic families AND communities (it matters that it was both). Neither became a conservative Catholics as adults but I think the constant reminders as children that many thoughts, behaviors, ideas, etc., are deeply, morally wrong has never left them. And they did become abusive parents. Though they are not conservative, they are very judgmental of other people and tend to stake out strict positions on everything, from big issues like how to parent to extremely minor stuff like how to care for your yard or what food to serve guests. I think they really want to be told what is right and what is wrong and then just follow the rules, and it's scary to them to think that on a lot of issues, there really isn't a right or wrong, just different.

I think my mom has come to realize how limiting this viewpoint is and does try a bit to be more open minded. As a result, I think she is happier than my dad. He is angry all the time because nothing every meets his expectations, because they are so narrow. I think they are both pretty insecure.

I think I'm open minded out of necessity. They were very immature parents, strict to the point of cruelty but incredibly inconsistent, often parenting out of a sense of their own insecurity and not really grounded in raising us to have a place in the world. As a result, from a young age I have looked to other families and inspiration for how to live. That could have gone very wrong but I'm fortunate it didn't -- I chose good inspiration and have found some anchors. But I never lost my ability to be open to how other people live, even if it's different from me. I learned very young that it's worth it to hear people out and see where they are coming from. You might discover they have something to teach you, and even if they don't, odds are good that their way of thinking is harmless to you and might work for them. Heck, even conservative Catholicism might make sense for some people, even if it did not work out well for my family.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics