Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Candy Smorgasbord

Halloween is for dressing up, putting on a different persona, and racking up cute or horrific pictures.  In my family, I encourage costumes that are non-commercial characters with my kids, in hopes that they may play out their own authentic creature.  I love to watch their imagination unfold without the influence of someone's voice-over.

I am also a household of no sugar, which I've come to learn, means they get candy all day long, just not at home under my care.  Halloween is a tricky one, pun intended, with candy filling up their sacs.

We live in a neighborhood behind our kids school, and trick-or-treating is the thing to do on Halloween!  I'm no humbug, but I am that household that hands out packs of fruit gummies, pretzels, juice-based suckers, and pencils. I'm thinking Cuties this year too.  Mini Play-doh containers would work too.

Here's my candy policy when my kids bring home the loot: they get to pick out three pieces of candy to keep.  (I ignore what they eat on the trail).  For the remaining smorgasbord, I get out a stainless steel bowl and a roll of nickels and dimes, and make a big "kerplunk" sounds in the bowl with 5 cents for the little pieces, 10 cents for the big ones.  Regardless of what candy they bring home, I make it worth their while by giving them the purchase power for turning their candy into about $10 of their own.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Next Gen

Has the perception that the younger generations are lazier, impolite, hoodlums with bad grammar and listen to terrible music been this way since the dawn of time?  I wonder what generation it was that truly turned into crack pipes, a lesser specimen than their predecessors, if there ever was a tipping point.  Have we been degenerating every since?  This is all the while each wave of parents try their best to raise stronger, smarter, and healthier children, no less.

It is possible our human condition is so attached to familiarity that we failed to see the face of success in our successors.  This would suggest then the unit of measure is flawed.  If different is inherently uncomfortable, and we are measuring them against our agree-o-meter, they will always appear to fail.

How might a culture with this mentality be influenced in how they interact, trust, and enable young folks?

Evolution is both change and inevitable, change is generally disagreeable.  Maybe there is value or intentional-design in this dissonance commonly found between generations.  Maybe it is mental formations that serve us poorly to keep around.

There are many many assumptions above.  There may be assumptions with too big of a gap to jump, making the thought process above complete garbage.  What's out there that might scratch the surface of closing those gaps?

Just in case, post ways in which the Millennials are succeeding us.