Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Support
So I'm still kinda reeling from something my mother pointed out to me earlier this year: I'm now the age my step-father was when he married Mom. Yow. Even just typing that gave me the willies.
Anyway, as I've been surrounded by more and more people who are having kids (apparently a lot of our friends are younger than we are), this thought has been rattling around in my brain periodically, and not doing any good in the process. Essentially, when my step-dad was my age, he married someone who had a 16-year-old kid. He also had a 14-, 9-, and 6-year old of his own. I can't imaging having even one kid right now, of any age, much less three of my own and two that I inherited.
And if I'm anything like the typical male my age (no, we're not going there), I'm just stupefied at the thought of what I'd do with kids. I'm certainly not anywhere near qualified to be a parent (thank goodness that we can't have kids), and I can't imaging that with what I've been through in my life that any other adult is qualified, either. Yikes. Adults going around having kids and raising them.
So I've decided to form a new support group for those of us who were raised by these horribly-unqualified people: ACOA - Adult Children of Adults. We'll have weekly meetings where we'll sit around and be amazed, bemused, befuddled, and shocked by the things our parents (our *adult* parents, mind you) did while raising us and compare that to the things we're dealing with now at that age. We'll laugh and cry and hug each other and offer reassurances that we're all OK despite the fact that adults brought us into this world and were responsible for us for 1-18 years, or some such number in there. As Adult Children of Adults, we can learn coping mechanisms for the traumas we endure daily. We can remind each other of the good things that have happened to us, and that just because our parents were adults doesn't mean we have to be adults, too. We can choose to fight against our genetic predisposition to be adults like our parents, or just rely on the strength of our fellow members to help us get through those trying times when we think that, even for a moment, we may have traces of adultness in our daily routines.
I should be able to get non-profit status for this organization as well. So not only can I get counselling and guidance for moving through this trying period in my life, but it could be a great tax break, too.
Entire contents of this site © 2003-2008 Eriq Oliver Neale/Simultaneous Pancakes Media unless otherwise noted. I hate that I have to point that out...Anyway, as I've been surrounded by more and more people who are having kids (apparently a lot of our friends are younger than we are), this thought has been rattling around in my brain periodically, and not doing any good in the process. Essentially, when my step-dad was my age, he married someone who had a 16-year-old kid. He also had a 14-, 9-, and 6-year old of his own. I can't imaging having even one kid right now, of any age, much less three of my own and two that I inherited.
And if I'm anything like the typical male my age (no, we're not going there), I'm just stupefied at the thought of what I'd do with kids. I'm certainly not anywhere near qualified to be a parent (thank goodness that we can't have kids), and I can't imaging that with what I've been through in my life that any other adult is qualified, either. Yikes. Adults going around having kids and raising them.
So I've decided to form a new support group for those of us who were raised by these horribly-unqualified people: ACOA - Adult Children of Adults. We'll have weekly meetings where we'll sit around and be amazed, bemused, befuddled, and shocked by the things our parents (our *adult* parents, mind you) did while raising us and compare that to the things we're dealing with now at that age. We'll laugh and cry and hug each other and offer reassurances that we're all OK despite the fact that adults brought us into this world and were responsible for us for 1-18 years, or some such number in there. As Adult Children of Adults, we can learn coping mechanisms for the traumas we endure daily. We can remind each other of the good things that have happened to us, and that just because our parents were adults doesn't mean we have to be adults, too. We can choose to fight against our genetic predisposition to be adults like our parents, or just rely on the strength of our fellow members to help us get through those trying times when we think that, even for a moment, we may have traces of adultness in our daily routines.
I should be able to get non-profit status for this organization as well. So not only can I get counselling and guidance for moving through this trying period in my life, but it could be a great tax break, too.
