Think about all the behaviours that parents try to limit or restrict in their children.
Now think about how many of those limitations or restrictions are relevant to adults.
We can smoke and drink and have sex. We can go out whenever we want with whomever we please and go driving around in a car if one of us has one and come back as late as we want and stay up as late as we want before going to bed. We can talk on the phone or play videogames or watch TV or go on the internet as much as we want with no restrictions, and if we hear a swear word or see someone's boobies it's no big deal, not even worth mentioning really. We can have whatever cake or cookies or candy or junk food we want in any quantity without having to first drink a glass of milk or eat 11 peas or any other arbitrary rules. We can wear all the make-up we want, plus high heels or short hemlines or low-cut tops or bras with the best engineering money can buy. We can dye, pierce, or tattoo any part of our body humanly possibly. We can totally just walk into a pet store and buy a puppy. (We don't, because it's morally wrong, but we totally can.) We can leave our beds unmade and our clothes unironed and take hour-long showers and leave the house looking like that.
And we do whatever we want out of this list, whenever we want, to no ill effects.
And yet for the first 18 years of our lives, our parents were desperately trying to restrict these behaviours.
1 comment:
Great post. I think some of those behaviours our parents are trying to stop us from doing before we are better able to deal with the consequences, and because certain behaviours have increased negative effects on the very young. But in general, yeah, you're right.
We can totally just walk into a pet store and buy a puppy. (We don't, because it's morally wrong, but we totally can.)
:>)
Post a Comment