I wonder sometimes what parts of me are me and what parts of me come from my parents. I think about this every now and then...at least I do now that I have Colin. How much of our kids personalities are genetically ingrained in them and how much are the doing of us as parents? For example...I don't like ketchup. I also don't love ice cream. I could take it or leave it. Those are two of my strangest traits, I am sure. Every time someone finds out about those, they look at me like I am crazy. When I think about it, I don't think I have ever seen my mom eat ketchup and I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen her eat ice cream. So maybe I just followed the lead of my mom when I was a kid and adopted lots of her likes and dislikes. I wonder if Colin will like ketchup if he never sees me eat it? Hmmm...
I do know one thing for sure...I am going to introduce Colin to a world of tastes and places. I want him to have a diverse palate and enjoy travel. I want him to see the world beyond our living room. When I was a kid, my family did not go anywhere except our summer trips to Dallas to go to Wet N' Wild. My parents were working so hard to raise three kids and give us more than they had growing up. They felt like they could not afford to travel, so we never did. I totally understand this and don't think badly about my parents at all for the decision. I mean, there were three kids! I know that money is going to be tight for as long as I continue to stay at home with Colin, but it is really important to me that Colin gets out in the world. We have already decided that even if it means long road trips and stays at the Motel 6, we are going to see what is out there together as a family. I hope it is something that will make Colin a great man and give him lots of chances to learn about other people and places. I can't wait for the adventures to begin! Even if it does not involve ketchup! ;-)
Sidebar: The picture above is Colin showing off his onesie that his Great Mom Mom sent him. Jer's grandmother still lives in his hometown of Hellertown, PA and it was a gift from her. I noticed today that he has just about grown out of it, so we took some pictures for her. We love her very very much!!
1 comments:
I feel the same way about travel. The only trips we took when I was a kid was to San Antonio to see the grandparents and to the State Fair in Dallas.
Mark had a different childhood. It was important to his family to take one big family trip every summer -- Washington DC, Hawaii, London, NYC, California, Paris, etc.
We both agree that we want to do stuff like that too. I want to take 3 vacations a year: one big family roadtrip (the BIG trip) in the summer, I would love if we can continue our tradition of going to our Galveston cabin for Memorial Weekend (it's not expensive and we've been doing it every year since we started dating. I love that tradition), and one adult getaway around our anniversary in October (even if it's just to the San Antonio Riverwalk for a weekend while the twins are with my mom. I think couple time is important).
I envy the Europeans who get 6 weeks of paid vacation per year. Not at all surprising that Americans are so stressed and burned out.
Oh, and I dislike everything my mom likes. What's even stranger is that I HATE the foods she craved and ate a ton of when she was pregnant with me (like tomatoes and cottage cheese).
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