Here is a blog about me. I have to have change. I have moved around a lot for most of my life and have become to rely on that. So I find that I get tired of things when they do not change. For example, I get really sick of the way my furniture is arranged if we live in one place for more than 2 years. So I rearrange it all of the time. I also get tired of our dishes. I like new dishes. I threw away a bunch of our plastic dishes and got new glass dishes just because I knew the kids would break the glass dishes and I would get to replace them. That way I would never get too sick of the same old plates and cups. Fortunately, clothes wear out and we use up soap quickly enough, so I can count on change in the wardrobe and in the smells. I am also always continually wanting to paint our walls something different. But that crosses the line of how much change my husband can handle. (I thrive on change, but John seems to thrive on consistency. It makes John nervous when I move the furniture around. But that statement is about John, not me. :)) Recently, I have realized that I need my blog to match the seasons. I have been struggling to find a theme that fits winter. I think I will have to take more wintry pictures. But it does not snow much in Wichita. Hmmm.... maybe I should picture surf the web.
Now, about me and Twilight. I have held out on reading The Twilight series because I have heard that there is a fair amount of making out. (I am also not a fan of teenage romance or vampires.) Since I felt guilty reading Dear God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume when I was 12, I felt certain that I did not want Ruth and Kate reading the Twilight series. In fact, I have not let them read Judy Blume books. However, there has been a fair amount of peer pressure on the matter. Most of my family on both sides have read and loved the books, basically all of the women in relief society read the books and went to movie together, and all but one of my friends outside our ward, as far as I know, have read the series. Now the one friend of mine, who has been holding out, read the first book over Christmas break because her 11 year old daughter has been begging to read it. Well, I have felt pretty good with my decision until now. I do not like being the only one. When I told John about my friend, he praised my decision and I had to tell him that actually, the pressure is getting to be too much and I am thinking that maybe I should read Twilight after all. My friend that just read them said they weren't as bad as we have heard on the making out side of things. So now I have to decide-- do I want to be the last man out, or read the books and then let my preteen daughters read the books?????? If Ruth and Kate are going to read the books then I should know what is in them. And if I read the books then I cannot tell my daughters that they are inappropriate for them to read and expect them to respect me. Alas, I feel torn and like a bit of a loser for caving in so easily to peer pressure at the age of 33. Don't get me wrong, no one has actually said that I have to read these books, it is just that everyone else is doing it. Fortunately, once you reach adulthood you can expect your friends to remain your friends even if you don't do what they do. Everyone has been very respectful to my decision. I just don't like to be 'the only one'.
9 comments:
Diane, you are awesome! I trive on change also. I read the Twilight because I hate it when I recommend something to someone and they won't read/watch it because it is below their standards. I repect standards, but (start listening at but...) I also respect the people I love. Everyone has higher standards about some things and then they usually are not consistant, and excuse other things. Their associates probably have just the opposite sensibilities. Does this make sense? Because sometimes when someone rejects something that I recommend, then I see them watching something else that I wouldn't watch. So that was a long explaination....But that is why I read Twilight, because I decided that if someone that I loved and respected really liked something, then I wanted to share it with them and try to be kindly enough to see the good that they saw in it. I had no desire at all to read aoubt vampires or teenage romance. But I love those books. It would have been sad indeed if I had not joined into the family fun with those I love.
Now I am not talking you into reading them. I am simply explaining my thought processm observations and feelings.
I think that you should do what YOU want to do. It won't hurt your girls to wait to read them until they are grown and make their own choices. Don't cave in just because everyone else did, unless you want to read them within yourself.
Mom, I didn't know you comment on blogs. when did this happen?
Well Diane, I have to say that I give into peer pressure all the time. haha, not really actually. BUT Twilight was a total give in. I didn't want to read it either. But I was HUGE pregnant, James had gotten a new computer game, and so I was left alone each evening and had nothing to do. Thus I borrowed Twilight from Emily and was hooked.
But don't you think it's ok to read it to see if it's OK for your kids to read, and then if you find you don't want them to read it afterall you can tell them, that it was too much of an adult book and when they are an adult they can decide? Well, I think it's good you have high standards. But I warn you...read the first and you shall read the last!!! :o)
loves!
ps- I have a hard time with change. Except if I had a lot of money I would change the color themes and decor in my home A LOT. no joke. but moving is always hard for me. I get very attached to people and places quickly. I just LOVE people and It's hard for me to not stay in touch with someone. I try so hard to stay friends with people from High School, college, our old ward, etc. I just want to be best friends with them. SO it's not the places that I get attched to or care about changing, it's the people. IT's hard for me to say goodbye.
I love change too it is fun and gives me something new to think about!
P.S. I have no comment about Twilight.
I say... don't do something because you feel pressured to. Just think that in a year or two all the hype and obsession will disappear. If you want to read them great... if you don't want to, don't let others tell you to. I don't know if you'd dislike them... but you'd probably think that the last one was too much.
I don't know if you'll even see this since I'm a little behind in reading your blog.
I read Twilight a little out of pressure too. I was the only one in my Book Club who wasn't really wanting to read them. So I was trying not to be a bad sport, but I did enjoy them a lot. They are very...entertaining. Maybe not some other things, but certainly very imaginative and fun and entertaining, which all of us moms can use I think.
And I think it's perfectly fine for you to read something that you won't let your kids read, especially as young as R & K still are. I think it's about if you are at a point in your life where you can put the content into context and objectively see it and not be personally swayed in a negative way by it. I think too much lies ahead of girls and some of the descriptions are so...realistic of the emotions, that I wouldn't want them quite that literate on advanced male/female relationships/hormone surges. Just my opinion though.
Oh, and I enjoyed learning more about you and your thoughts on change. I think I like change too but my change side has battles with my lazy/inert side. But James (like John and Dad) is very upset by upheaval or slight chaos of any kind. So I try to take things slowly when I have big plans, which makes it easier to him to accept and also appeases my lazy side.
How long do you guys think you'll be in Wichita? I wish I knew where we'd be at this time next year.
Diane,
I read things to protect my children and they know I do. Thus, they can totally respect me if I tell them the book is not appropriate for children (even pre-teens, or teens, or however old your current children are). Parents are supposed to be censors...it's their job (NOT saying that you HAVE to read the books, but that you can feel totally fine about reading them, and telling your children they cannot).
I have not read the books myself, yet, because of time-issues. Emma hasn't read it because I haven't read it, and we do know there's making out. She hates anything romantic, so she actually is not interested in reading them, even though Amber, her best friend, just finished books 1 & 2.
Change. It happens.
I recommend a book about it. :) Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson, MD. I'll loan it to you if you want. From the front cover, is a book of a "simple parable that reveals profound truths." It takes about an hour to read.
Twilight: I liked the books. I was skeptical that I would not like them at first, having heard they were about vampires. Not my thing either. But, I love, love, love a good story. These books tell a good story. I was challenged once in a book club years ago to read Frankenstein. Again, not my thing, but did and discovered a book that revealed some great aspects of human nature and told a pretty good story too. It stretched my fictional horizons and I found that I could enjoy things that bordered on the unusual or wierd or bizarre and still hang on to my sensibilities. This was true for me while reading the Twilight books. I was impressed that this was written by an LDS author. It surprised me for some reason.
Perhaps, you'll change your opinion of Twilight?!
Hey Diane, you are so funny and pensive!! I think you waste more energy thinking about reading it than if you just picked up the books and gave them a chance. If you feel bad when your reading them than just don't read them anymore. I just read Twilight and I thought it was a page turner and had some uplifting messages, but you can live without it, too. Besides, if thrive from change, maybe it would be a new change that could bring some excitement to your life!! Love, Anne Mortensen (who now lives in Oregon!!)
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