This Week's Interesting Overheard Comment
I'm apparently in one of those strange phases of the earth's revolution cycle where I keep coming across odd or thought-provoking conversations when I am out in public. This week the magic location was the library, of all places. A small cluster of women was chatting by the main doors as I was looking at this month's display exhibit. Apparently one of them has been having difficulty with a teenaged daughter. An incident in which the teenaged daughter had a teenaged sized meltdown was related. The meltdown included wailing, crying and shouted statements that she was never goign to school again, she hated everybody and she was never going to have any friends. The mother of said daughter was getting increasingly worked up during the retelling of the story, with increasingly dramatic hand gestures and facial expressions. The story ended with the mother saying "I don't know *where* she gets all of this drama from" and later called her daughter an utter bitch. The other women agreed that daughters are all unpleasant creatures who must learn this sort of crummy behavior from their friends.
If all daughters only learn crummy behavior from their friends (who are also daughters), from where does the crummy, overly dramatic behavior originate? Might it come from the overly dramatic mothers who apparently shout down their kids and call them bitches? I find it sad to find a cluster of women who are clearly of the impression that female children are all unpleasant, as though there is something defective about them. Might that unpleasantness not have something to do with *how* said female children are being reared? Did these mothers not realize that they are also calling themselves unpleasant creatures since they too were once female children? Why is it that there is so much complaining about how things are, but little critical thinking about why things are the way they are or attempts at changing the situation? If you don't like your child's behavior, what purpose does it serve to complain about the child without doing anything to address the behavior? Why on earth would you run your child down to your friends anyway? Do you have that little faith in your offspring? I find that concept to be utterly abhorrent.
Workplace Sponsored Seminars
Tomorrow there is a seminar being offered about goal setting, stress reduction and financial planning. I was very happy to see that there are workplace seminars here. No, the subject is not entirely applicable to my job, but I've always been of the opinion that workplace seminars which help employees become better, less-stressed people are likely to have a positive impact on productivity. Apparently the higher-ups at my workplace think this too or there wouldn't be a workplace seminar program. I'm always surprised that more employees don't take advantage of such programs, but the perception seems to be that if they don't have to do it or it's not directly applicable, then it's a waste of time and not worth learning. I've never understood that. Why wouldn't someone take advantage of the free opportunity to learn new skills which might help them be more successful in life?
If all daughters only learn crummy behavior from their friends (who are also daughters), from where does the crummy, overly dramatic behavior originate? Might it come from the overly dramatic mothers who apparently shout down their kids and call them bitches? I find it sad to find a cluster of women who are clearly of the impression that female children are all unpleasant, as though there is something defective about them. Might that unpleasantness not have something to do with *how* said female children are being reared? Did these mothers not realize that they are also calling themselves unpleasant creatures since they too were once female children? Why is it that there is so much complaining about how things are, but little critical thinking about why things are the way they are or attempts at changing the situation? If you don't like your child's behavior, what purpose does it serve to complain about the child without doing anything to address the behavior? Why on earth would you run your child down to your friends anyway? Do you have that little faith in your offspring? I find that concept to be utterly abhorrent.
Workplace Sponsored Seminars
Tomorrow there is a seminar being offered about goal setting, stress reduction and financial planning. I was very happy to see that there are workplace seminars here. No, the subject is not entirely applicable to my job, but I've always been of the opinion that workplace seminars which help employees become better, less-stressed people are likely to have a positive impact on productivity. Apparently the higher-ups at my workplace think this too or there wouldn't be a workplace seminar program. I'm always surprised that more employees don't take advantage of such programs, but the perception seems to be that if they don't have to do it or it's not directly applicable, then it's a waste of time and not worth learning. I've never understood that. Why wouldn't someone take advantage of the free opportunity to learn new skills which might help them be more successful in life?
Comments