Influences

The other day the baby was sitting quietly in his swing, Bill had him turned toward the TV watching fox news.. I came into the room, saw this and turned him away from the TV. "what did you do that for" Said Bill. "I don't want him watching this crap" I said. "He is a baby heather he probably doesn't even know whats going on" said Bill. But maybe he DOES know whats going on,at such a young age, I don't want his little mind exposed to the violence, politics, cheating ,lies and stealing that we see on the news, ESPECIALLY fox news, the republican soap box as it were which often times scares the bejesus out of me! That night we went to a birthday party, and over Manhattans discussed politics with our hosts,who brought up the fact, that maybe political parties shouldn't exists because often times you are taught to hate one or the other without ever knowing what each party really contributes.

For example, i was raised a devout democrat, my father, the union man drilled it into my head that republicans were all greedy rich business owners who were against pro-choice and basically who were war mongers.
So i grew up resenting republicans........but I wasn't really sure why....
What I would love to know is, what influences us? What influences and sources, drive us to make the decisions that we make? and if there were no influences and we were left to our own wills, would we make those same decisions?

It's something to really think about....

I want my son to make his own decisions, I will not tell him that one party is more evil than the other because they are BOTH evil, which is why I recently switched from democrat to the independent party, because I WANT to make my OWN decisions and don't want to be tied down to any one entity.

But it goes beyond politics, what about racism? Bill was raised in a very conservative, not racial but...well....lets say closed minded family. Even though he grew up in a predominately racially mixed part of Cleveland. I on the other hand grew up in a predominately black community, and was taught to love all people. But I am not a bleeding heart liberal, I still have my boundaries, I have this open mindedness because my parents never pushed me one way or the other, they let me decide for myself. My mother had lots of gay friends, black Friends, I had puerto rican, Spanish, and black friends. I loved surrounding my self with different cultures(still do), I even spent thanksgiving with my black neighbors one year just so I could see how different it was from our thanksgiving.And Passover with my Jewish Boyfriend, went to church with my puerto rican neighbors, My parents wanted me to be exposed to all those new things.

Bills parents.....not so much. I don't hold it against my husband, it was the way he was raised, but I often wonder if he wasn't influenced by his parents, would he feel the same way?

Would I feel the same way if I was raised by HIS parents?

I don't want to push Hudson into one field or the other, I want him to make his own choices. But the media and government have alot of pull in what children see and what they are told. So the best thing that I can do is to raise him to be wary of that and to search to find the answers within himself.

This also applies to every other aspect of our lives, we are influenced in some way in every decision that we make, influences can be good, they can provide us with more information when were are not sure what way that we need to go, but they can also stifle us, or pressure us into the wrong decision.
So next time you have a tough decision to make, or even if its whether or not you want the Twix or the snickers in the vending machine, think about this, think about WHY your making the decision that you are, and more importantly seek out what your heart really wants, because with that you can't go wrong!