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Sunday, August 09, 2009

Generation gap

For my age group it is very common that we have 180 deg. opposite view from parents. I think this is quite natural, because most of the times what must be happening is first we learn from our parents. When we go to school colleges etc. we understand that some of our parent's views are not quite correct.
Let it be whether to watch Mtv, Vtv or not or let it be whether to take alcohol or not or let it be regarding what kind of friend circle we should have. The problem is after thought/ discussions our views change because we are yet in the developing age. Probably for parents of age group 50-60 it is very difficult to get convinced on view other than theirs.

Up to age group of 20 we are bound to listen to their views, even if we oppose that opposition is to such a small extent that at the most it result in something emotional frustration for us. As we grow older I think the parents are the ones who suffer this emotional frustration.

It might sound like bad habit (but I do not do it on purpose), when I go for morning walk I get to listen to many of the discussions of people around. Many of the uncle and aunties are discussing same things.
Typically a group of women (age group 50- 70) discuss subjects related to their own daughter in law (some even discuss neighbours daughter in law!), or the the change in behaviour of their son. The couple is of age group 27 - 33 they discuss many times about the old people in home. Most of the times their complaints are something like - why do they interfere in our private matters. In 70% of the cases the husband is convincing his wife regarding the behaviour of his parents.
Those in the age group of 35-45 going for walk with partner generally are concerned about studies of their children. Mostly I hear discussions (more over complaints) about the academic performance of their son/ daughter. It is interesting that the children of age group 10 to 15 rarely discuss about their parents when they are in group.

Many of my friends and also me included have quite great difference of opinions from our parents in some cases. Let is be simple thing as which TV program we should watch or if we go to hotel then should we order Maharastrian dish or Punjabi or Chinese. The problem is we want to have same kind of food (since we want to enjoy food together) and at the same time we are not ready to give up our choice. Same things happen with TV shows I guess. Let parents watch TV and let me see my favourite show on laptop is probably simple solution but thing is probably we have this urge to watch programme together because we want to be together. We want to have same food in the hotel because of the urge that we want to have food together.
I think though we are fighting on these small things the reason behind these fights is we love our parents and vice-versa.

I do not know what is exact solution to solve this generation gap problem. I think some simple solutions me and my dad try many times is to adjust. Though I like to try new dishes in hotel it is good to adjust sometimes for dad's choice. Even my dad do not tell me to switch to his favourite program when I am watching something interesting on NatGeo or History.

This do not stop us from fighting - because in some cases both of us are not ready to compromise, but I truly think that there is nothing bad in having different opinions. We do not bother to fight on many such issues when we are at workplace then why to fight on simple stupid matters with our loved ones?

I hope that for everyone such fights should take role of cement in making the relations stronger than to take the role of friction which makes harm to both materials in contact.

Cheers!
Ashish

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