I was with some colleagues today and we were talking about growing up and how things are different for kids now compared to when we had grown up. Things are much different these days where kids are being repeatedly told that they will never be able to afford a house and that they will be renting for the rest of their lives. The cost of things are much higher compared to when we bought houses, and much higher than when our parents had bought houses. These days kids are living with their parents much later in life to help save money or without as much intention to move out. I did not move out until I was much older as I was in school and did not see much reason to. I spent most of my time in the lab at school and only came home to sleep. I had mentioned that kids in our age group could be broken down into 2 main groups in Sudbury. Those that dreamed of becoming a miner and living that life, and those that had bigger ambitions and wanted to move down south to a bigger city. When we were chatting what had ocme up is when you moved down south you had to learn your directions and you had growth as you explored other ares of the large cities. When you grow up in Toronto you tend to stay in your neighbourhood because it is pretty self-contained and there is no reason to go to other areas. If you come from outside of the city you tend to explore a bit more and venture everywhere. My sister knows her area of Toronto very well, but does not always know all of the good restaurants in other areas of town. She needs to look it up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you have kids it is your natural instinct to protect them and keep them from harm. After dinner today we were chatting with Xavier and I said it would be fun to go to the Bruce peninsula and go see some of the caves there. He asked if he meant like small caves that you could barely squeeze through and I said no. All of us agreed that it would be a stupid idea to try and go through caves that are so narrow. I told him that if he died doing something so stupid like getting stuck in a cave I would be so mad at him. I may be a bit biased and see thing through rose-tinted glasses looking back, but I think growing up we were left to our ow devices much more. What it allowed us to do is build resilience. You need to have those situations where things do not go well to learn how to bounce back. I am not. sure if this is true or not, but it seems that these days there are more helicopter parents with the best intentions where they want to protect their kids and not have them struggle like they did. If this is done too much then it takes away coping mechanisms for the kids. When chatting with my colleagues, we had discussed that there was more physical bullying and you learned to keep your mouth shut. It was brought up that kids these days tend to get a long a bit better as there does not seem to be as much physical bullying. I think though that it has just transfered to more cyber bullying and emotional impact compared to physical. Growing up I remember kids fighting all of the time and it would be a huge event when you heard about kids fighting. It seems that it does not happen as much now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A friend of mine called me this morning and asked me how I was doing. I told her that I was doing fine now, but that I ha some rough times where I struggled with the thought that this is my life now and that the new norm is that I am going to struggle a day or so a week. She was concerned about it because most of the time I am quite stoic and can suppress any negativity and keep a positive outlook. I attribute a lot of that from growing up in the jungles of Vietnam where I never knew where my next meal was going to come from or if the Viet Cong were going to find my hiding spot. Growing up where we had to fend for ourselves because our parents were working helped build resiliency. I had a lot of situations in life where things did not go the way that I had planned and I had to learn how to adapt to it. That is what makes some of this now difficult is that I am not sure what the path forward is for adapting to this. I need more cycles to better understand how things will be and I can adapt. Today I have eaten fine, but then I wonder if the ascites is building up because there is an underlying discomfort in my abdomen. It reminds me of the first time I ahd the buildup and I struggled to stay standing and had to sit down frequently to help alleviate the discomfort. Things should be getting better, but that underlying question will be present. I will weigh myself and monitor whether the amount of food that I am eating is getting impacted or not. If I can eat less and the discomfort increases then it is a clear sign that I need to get drained. I am not sure what factors play a role in the amount of ascites build up. I suspect that it might be <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My sister came back to Sudbury yesterday and originally we had thought that she was going to be back at 7pm. The kids wanted to see her, so Mel and I had to do some grocery shopping around 6pm and Olivier told us not to hurry and take our time. By the time we came bacl around 7pm, we had found out that she was not going to arrive until 9pm because she was picking up her friend. Her friend had to do her hair and makeup and delayed the trip by 2 hours. I am not sure if that is the reason, but that is the story that we are going to go with. I told her to stop by on her way in and she stopped by and the kids were all excited to see her. She brought in some cookies from the market and the boys each had one. The cookie was huge and was quite delicious. It is amusing how something so simple can bring joy to people. My sister took them out to lunch today and Presotea, but they ran out of time to go to the escape room. It made me think of all the small things that Mel and I use to do that brought us happiness. We have been together for so long that you sometimes forget the small things that were so special to you before. Mel and I tend to go to bed now at different times. I have been so tired lately and I know that my body is reacting to things as I normally can get by on 5 to 6 hours of sleep, but lately it has been more than 7 or 8. When Mel does come to bed at the same time as me though and she is not reading or watching a movie, I like to hold her hand. Just holding her hand brings me comfort. Wen we go to bed at different times or she is reading I will wear gloves to bed and it amuses me that at some point during the night both gloves come off. I do not know what hapens, but it happens a lot. Mel told me that it is the same for Olivier when he wears gloves for his eczema. By the morning the gloves are off. I use to bring Mel coffee in bed or breakfast in bed and that has fallen off a bit. As we get older we forget to do some of the small things that our partners appreciate. For the rest of the week I think I am going to try and focus on some of the small things to remind Mel that even though I am getting grumpier in my old age that I still love her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. QHM Mach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was with some colleagues today and we were talking about growing up and how things are different for kids now compared to when we had grown up. Things are much different these days where kids are being repeatedly told that they will never be able to afford a house and that they will be…<\/p>\n