You Can't Make Me Like It!

My friend/co-worker and I were trying to reassure her son yesterday that he will indeed be able to master the art of alphabetizing words. He listened to us for a few minutes and then uttered the challenge that children have been issuing for a hundred years: “Well, you can make me do it, but you can’t make me like it!” So very, very true…and I can remember saying the same thing to my parents so many times.

Repetition does not always lead to success.

Absence does not always make the heart grow fonder.

And enthusiasm is not always contagious.

My parents taught me to do many things during my childhood that I hated doing and still hate. They made me eat things that I still avoid like poison. They made me say things that I didn’t mean and promise things that I couldn’t deliver. I suppose it is just the nature of the job. Parents don’t mean to be mean, just influential. They want to pass on part of their personality, preferences and experience, whether you like it or not. So I learned more about cars than I ever wanted to know and to this day I don’t like to be in a shop or garage. I hate mopping floors and dusting furniture. I hate hominy and liver and black eyed peas. I won’t say “I’m sorry” unless I really mean it. And I won’t ever, ever promise that you I’m going to stop talking so much, or stop tormenting my brothers! LOL

And parents aren’t the only ones who try to make you like things. Friends were and are always trying to get me to shop. I hate shopping!! Rarely do it except for groceries or necessities or gifts. You won’t often tempt me to stroll through a mall or window shop down a busy street just for the enjoyment of it. Don’t like “sales” parties where you go to buy pretty plastic containers or purses or sweet-smelling candles. Online shopping was made for people like me!

Not a big fan of games either. My brothers taught me to play several card games and there was one that I played in college a few times with friends.  My grandmother loved Aggravation and I indulged her penchant for it, but never really liked playing. I don’t like video games and I’ve never tried any of the “virtual world” games that friends get so involved with. I’m not by nature a very competitive person.

Don’t like amusement parks or similar tourist attractions and I really can’t even explain why I don’t. I suppose it is a combination of a dozen factors. But I’ve never been to see Disney World and I can die happily without the experience. I have never been to Dollywood or Branson. I’ve been to Six Flags with groups and with my own children and I’ve vowed never to return. Don’t even call me if you get free tickets to Graceland.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. And my own children are probably asking “Well, then why did you make me….?” It is the nature of the job. You want your children to try things. You want them to attempt. You want them to taste. You know that sometimes they have to do things and know things and say things. So you talk and teach and even coerce. But you can’t make them like it!!  

 

 

 

Comments

[Megan]

You are hysterically funny. I am going to ponder now the things I was made to do or say that I refuse to do now and conversely, what I'm requiring of my children.