Thursday, April 7, 2011

Adventure vs. Thrill Seeking

I think one of the hardest parts of parenting thus far is seeing yourself, particularly your flaws, in your child.  My mother's strategy for dealing with this is that she ascribed all my flaws to my father, and she took credit for all of my strengths.  Nice tactic, mom, but let's just say that might be a bit, ummm, self-serving. 

I know that my daughter has a few of my strengths and a few of my flaws.  Some of the flaws are strengths in certain situations and vice versa. 

I love thrills.  Scary movies, roller coasters, driving fast, getting that heart rate pumping by being in scary places that I'm not supposed to be.  It's all very exhilarating, and I relish those types of experiences.  My husband is not a fan of thrills though. 

My husband is more of the adventure type of person.  I, on the other hand, am not.  I like to know where I'm going, I like to know what is coming up in terms of obstacles and opportunities.  I do like to take long walks where I may not know exactly where I'm going, but I have a pretty good directional instinct and can find my way back fairly easily. If I go somewhere, I like to have the logistics planned out beforehand.

My daughter is so like me.  She's cautious, she likes to really understand things before she feels comfortable doing them.  She wouldn't do anything wild and crazy like climbing up a bookshelf because she's not sure how it will end.  On the other hand, if she's around people she's comfortable with, she will swing really high on the swings, be swung upside down by her feet, and likes that extra bit of adrenaline.  You know what I'm looking forward to?  Having someone to ride roller coasters with, watch scary movies with, bungee jump with.  Unfortunately, I don't know many fellow thrill seekers.  In about 15 years, I will bet money that I'm going to have a partner in crime in thrill-seeking.  

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