Mr. Mom

Just wanted to emphasize that that last post was tongue-in-cheek. We utilize the one-eyed-electronic-babysitter sparingly but realize its utility. B's parents come into town today. Not sure why I get so reluctant to be myself around them. I suppose it's something many/most people feel about their in-laws. I was wondering why this is the case--for me at least. My wife is wonderful. She doesn't have more foibles than the average bloke. But she also seems to have traveled a long way personality and worldview-wise from her upbringing. I, too, feel like I'm not at all the same person that my parents brought me up to be. That doesn't mean that we're better or worse in our differences from our parents--we've not progressed necessarily, nor regressed. We're just different. Which got me to thinking: how much does our parenting directly affect our kids (or, inversely, how has our parent's parenting affected us)? Will Greta be recognizably the product of me & B when she gets to be an adult? Do peers, advertising, movies, school, and theme parks have more of an influence than parents? Are we essentially just babysitters and banks? Right at this moment, my daughter is saying "hello" to Seamus (our big wiry alley cat) and attempting to do some toddler version of the splits while loosely holding onto a baby gate and wiggling her butt. It's both cute and disturbing. Did this develop from some parenting technique, personality trait, idiosyncrasy, etc. of her parents? Is it some latent biological trait? Or is it something more metaphysical--some characteristic of hers that's particularly Greta without traceable cause? Oh man. This turned into silly philosophical reflection almost without my control...what would my mother say...?