Stuff and such
Oct. 8th, 2007 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilGrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Just typed up a great big long post, only to press some random button by accident and have it all deleted. And LJ's saved draft? It was the empty box from after it was deleted. :claws wildly at screen:
Well, I was rambling a lot...I don't think I have the energy to do it all again. My first thought was basically ranting about how much I dislike small talk. I understand its social purpose, and I do my best to remain polite when people engage me in it, but sometimes I feel like writing up a card, as I did my sophomore year of college, with answers to all the questions I expected people to ask me. "Where are you from?" "What's your major?" Etc., etc. I planned to thrust it at people and stave off the stale conversation I had endured twenty times already. Ultimately I was too nice to do that to many people....but I'm seriously considering it now. "When's your due date?" "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" "What are you naming him?" Blah. I know it's considered the nice, solicitious thing to say to a pregnant woman - after all, what mother doesn't enjoy blathering on about her baby's vital statistics? But I'd rather explore some new conversational territory. I'm especially tired of well-meaning questions about whether I've heard of the latest theory about autism - of course I have. Just because some talk show or news program is only now getting wind of it doesn't mean I haven't been aware of the immunization theory for oh, about six years now. And I don't want to talk about it, thanks. But then, much as I'd like to slink entirely into the Internet-world where you can talk entirely about what you want, when you want, and never endure small talk, I do acknowledge that small talk and other such conversation skills are an essential aspect of basic social behavior, and if I don't exercise those skills, they'll get atrophied and then I'll really hate small talk. So it's good for me, in an icky medicine kind of way. ;)
The other thing I was blathering about shortly before the Deletion of Doom was how parenting magazines never seem to extend their cozy, coy advice to the realm of bringing up teenagers. As if parenthood just stops suddenly at age twelve. Sheesh, that's when you need advice the most, isn't it? I suppose for a lot of parents adolescence is the time for a very hands-off approach, since your kids are going to be involved with activities and school and their all important peer groups, and it's better if the uncool parents don't bug them too much. That's balderdash, though. I know I was a very unusual teen, but I liked hanging out with my parents. I enjoyed my time at home, or going on family outings or vacations. I didn't think my parents were ultra-cool, but I didn't think I was cool either, so that wasn't an issue. I noticed that my older sister and I were usually the only teens to be seen hanging out with our parents in public, and I just thought that was pretty sad. Oh, I had friends my own age, don't get me wrong, and we hung out together too. I just never went through a "I can't stand to be around my parents" stage. Parenting a teenager, I think, doesn't have to be like navigating a deadly swamp, just waiting for the quicksand to suck you in. Perhaps I will be singing a different tune when my autistic son reaches adolescence....but I really think it's possible for parenting to still be enjoyable even when your children become the strange creatures known as Teenagers. :P
Just typed up a great big long post, only to press some random button by accident and have it all deleted. And LJ's saved draft? It was the empty box from after it was deleted. :claws wildly at screen:
Well, I was rambling a lot...I don't think I have the energy to do it all again. My first thought was basically ranting about how much I dislike small talk. I understand its social purpose, and I do my best to remain polite when people engage me in it, but sometimes I feel like writing up a card, as I did my sophomore year of college, with answers to all the questions I expected people to ask me. "Where are you from?" "What's your major?" Etc., etc. I planned to thrust it at people and stave off the stale conversation I had endured twenty times already. Ultimately I was too nice to do that to many people....but I'm seriously considering it now. "When's your due date?" "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" "What are you naming him?" Blah. I know it's considered the nice, solicitious thing to say to a pregnant woman - after all, what mother doesn't enjoy blathering on about her baby's vital statistics? But I'd rather explore some new conversational territory. I'm especially tired of well-meaning questions about whether I've heard of the latest theory about autism - of course I have. Just because some talk show or news program is only now getting wind of it doesn't mean I haven't been aware of the immunization theory for oh, about six years now. And I don't want to talk about it, thanks. But then, much as I'd like to slink entirely into the Internet-world where you can talk entirely about what you want, when you want, and never endure small talk, I do acknowledge that small talk and other such conversation skills are an essential aspect of basic social behavior, and if I don't exercise those skills, they'll get atrophied and then I'll really hate small talk. So it's good for me, in an icky medicine kind of way. ;)
The other thing I was blathering about shortly before the Deletion of Doom was how parenting magazines never seem to extend their cozy, coy advice to the realm of bringing up teenagers. As if parenthood just stops suddenly at age twelve. Sheesh, that's when you need advice the most, isn't it? I suppose for a lot of parents adolescence is the time for a very hands-off approach, since your kids are going to be involved with activities and school and their all important peer groups, and it's better if the uncool parents don't bug them too much. That's balderdash, though. I know I was a very unusual teen, but I liked hanging out with my parents. I enjoyed my time at home, or going on family outings or vacations. I didn't think my parents were ultra-cool, but I didn't think I was cool either, so that wasn't an issue. I noticed that my older sister and I were usually the only teens to be seen hanging out with our parents in public, and I just thought that was pretty sad. Oh, I had friends my own age, don't get me wrong, and we hung out together too. I just never went through a "I can't stand to be around my parents" stage. Parenting a teenager, I think, doesn't have to be like navigating a deadly swamp, just waiting for the quicksand to suck you in. Perhaps I will be singing a different tune when my autistic son reaches adolescence....but I really think it's possible for parenting to still be enjoyable even when your children become the strange creatures known as Teenagers. :P
