mojo
05-22-2008, 01:26 PM
I used to think that a persons character, morals, values etc were determined by the enviroment in which they were raised.
Now i'm not so sure.
As an example i'm going to use my family, specifically my 4 kids. My wife would kill me if she knew i was discussing them as some sort of social experiment. :)
Our first child is nearly eleven now and we went through all the same issues first time parents went through, wondering if we were doing the right things and so on. Now nearly eleven years later it turns out that i think we did a pretty good job. She's a great kid, is regularly in the top 1/2 of her classes academically, is well mannered and responsible.
Four years after the eldest we had twins and we pretty much followed the same formula which seemed to have worked well with the first ie reading to them, playing music to them, providing a happy healthy enviroment etc etc.
The twins are now seven and are in the top 5% of all their subjects at school and are both reading at a twelve year old level according to the school's testing.
Likewise they are both fantastically well mannered kids and have a great social standing among their peers.
Five years later along comes number four, well, you'd think that what seemed to have worked for the other three would also work for the newest addition.
Not so.
She is nearly three now and if i didn't know any better i would suggest that she was the spawn of Satan and not really our child. (still love her dearly of course). She is the complete opposite of all of our other children.
Nothing has changed for us since the birth of our first child up until now, the enviroment they have all grown up in is basically the same yet she seems hell bent on the destruction of the earth. :)
All of the kids are girls so there is no gender difference to take into consideration.
So now i'm starting to believe that perhaps we are not a product of our enviroment after all, perhaps our character is formed at conception, genetically inherited.
I often hear the comment that children are blank slates just waiting for their character to be written according to the enviroment in which their raised, and i believed that this was so after our first three.
Since the anti-christ has come to live with us however i'm not so sure.
What do think?
Btw, my tongue is firmly placed in my cheek when describing her, she is as cute as a button and i love her to death.
mojo
Now i'm not so sure.
As an example i'm going to use my family, specifically my 4 kids. My wife would kill me if she knew i was discussing them as some sort of social experiment. :)
Our first child is nearly eleven now and we went through all the same issues first time parents went through, wondering if we were doing the right things and so on. Now nearly eleven years later it turns out that i think we did a pretty good job. She's a great kid, is regularly in the top 1/2 of her classes academically, is well mannered and responsible.
Four years after the eldest we had twins and we pretty much followed the same formula which seemed to have worked well with the first ie reading to them, playing music to them, providing a happy healthy enviroment etc etc.
The twins are now seven and are in the top 5% of all their subjects at school and are both reading at a twelve year old level according to the school's testing.
Likewise they are both fantastically well mannered kids and have a great social standing among their peers.
Five years later along comes number four, well, you'd think that what seemed to have worked for the other three would also work for the newest addition.
Not so.
She is nearly three now and if i didn't know any better i would suggest that she was the spawn of Satan and not really our child. (still love her dearly of course). She is the complete opposite of all of our other children.
Nothing has changed for us since the birth of our first child up until now, the enviroment they have all grown up in is basically the same yet she seems hell bent on the destruction of the earth. :)
All of the kids are girls so there is no gender difference to take into consideration.
So now i'm starting to believe that perhaps we are not a product of our enviroment after all, perhaps our character is formed at conception, genetically inherited.
I often hear the comment that children are blank slates just waiting for their character to be written according to the enviroment in which their raised, and i believed that this was so after our first three.
Since the anti-christ has come to live with us however i'm not so sure.
What do think?
Btw, my tongue is firmly placed in my cheek when describing her, she is as cute as a button and i love her to death.
mojo