Thursday, September 06, 2007

A Question

Does Conor take after me emotionally?

Or do I have the emotional capacity of a toddler?

5 comments:

niobe said...

Just, uh, theoretically, couldn't the answer to both questions be yes?

Anonymous said...

Well, toddlers are very emotional...

-Erica in Albany

Anonymous said...

What does 'emotional capacity' mean?

The following isn't about 'emotional capacity' which kind of sounds like something bureaucratic or industrial.

You are refering to emotions expressed, I assume, since you can't really have insight into what your child is feeling if he doesn't express anything. I guess sometimes you can though. Lack of expression under duress situations tells you about stoicism, learned or inherited.

Um, well, this is my take on things: people oftentimes indulge behaviourally. They get something out of it all. It's somehow satisfying. It's kind of like exhibitionism in the emotional dimension. (It's boring. I wonder why people don't finally bore themselves to death with this stuff. It's so unproductive.)Children learn from the adults in their environment that behaving in certain ways is alright.

You figure it out. You are the psych major.

gk

Anonymous said...

I better explain myself.

Emotionalism is a waste of energy. People use up their energy like this instead of actually figuring out what they should/could be doing to sort out whatever it is that results in them feeling the way they do and expressing themselves the way they are.

It's better to just step back, observe, assess and respond. It's better to respond than to react. Most of the time.

Reaction, of course, is appropriate at certain times. But people tend to over-react and to react when it would be better for everyone all round if they just shut up and used their brains more constructively.

That's what I meant.

Now I don't know what you really were asking. I only know what I was really thinking.

Don't beat me. Please don't beat me.

gk

Anonymous said...

We all have moments of feeling pure raw emotion with no idea where to look for comfort. It's not always easy to hold in our emotions or rationally attend to them.
As for taking after you, certainly there is a genetic factor that would influence the emotional nature of an individual. He's 50% you, after all. :)Again, I say, lucky kid.