When I was a kid my mother was always telling me to stand up straight. I really wish I had listened to her. A few weeks ago I threw my back out yet again, and the chiropractor and the massage therapist (no, that's not as fun as it sounds) both came to the general conclusion-surprise, surprise-that I need to stand up straight.
My father and my grandfather were both very stooped. I get my body shape from them, and so I'm genetically predispositioned to slouch. Plus I'm at the computer way too much, which does very little for one's posture.
I have two approaches to this problem. I could shrug, say, "what are you going to do?", and go back to slouching, condemning myself to decades of intermittent pain. Or I can bite the bullet and cause pain now as I try to relearn how to stand up. I've chosen to go back to the toddler mode and boy, is it difficult. But at least I can walk again.
Our parents bequeath us many things, like hugs, smiles, love, and Christmas decorations we made when we were 7. But they also pass on a number of bad things. Maybe it's a tendency to gain weight just by looking at chocolate truffles. Maybe it's a predisposition to alcoholism, health problems, or receding hairlines. Or perhaps it's a personality issue: you're too shy, too angry, too impulsive, too scared.
Unfortunately, at the same time as I have noticed the traits that my parents passed on to me, I have also noticed those that I have bequeathed to my own offspring. I am blessed with one daughter whom I love to pieces who is also the spitting image of me (minus the slouching), both physically and emotionally. All of the things that bug me about me I see in her, too. And I don't want her plagued with my problems!
The funny thing about our personalities, though, is that our strengths are also often our greatest weaknesses. For instance, my daughter Katie has a real ability to make people laugh. She's a ham, and sometimes when you're in the middle of disciplining her she comes out with something that is so funny you have to leave the room so she doesn't see that she's broken through your stern composure. At the same time, Katie is also the one who is hard to take anything seriously, or to work hard. While Rebecca is our little perfectionist, Katie would rather put on a ridiculous looking skirt, stand on a table, and twirl. I want Katie to learn how to be appropriate in different circumstances, but I don't want her to lose her playfulness. In fact, I want to encourage her, because she has the gift of making those around her smile. But it needs to be steered in the right direction.
In the same way, my older daughter is a perfectionist, and takes life too seriously. Speaking as one who can identify, this is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because you tend to be a high achiever. It's a curse because you make yourself miserable in the process. Learning to give yourself a break, to allow mistakes, to see areas where you've stumbled not as huge personal failures but as simply being human is vital to growing up without giving oneself an ulcer.
As parents, we're the ones who can best see where our kids may be heading in the wrong direction, especially if those weaknesses are also in us. But when we do see those weaknesses, we often over-reach in our criticism because we're so sensitive about them. We don't help our kids grow; we just make them feel ashamed. Let's resist the temptation to lash out and criticize. Remember that every fault that we see probably has a flipside that's positive. The best way to break this "genetic curse", for lack of a better term, may not be to purge it altogether, but to steer your child see towards the positive aspect of this characteristic. Then you can help them minimize the negative. And now you'll have to excuse me. I've been sitting at the computer too long and I have to do my stretching again.
