More Childhood

The kid meme breeds.

What childhood habit or passion now seems most absurd?
The most problematic preoccupation was certainly the paranoia about childhood itself.

Related was my near-obsession with enhancing the stupidity of my peers. I wasn't (and still am not) particularly competitive, in the way of having rivalries with the other kids who were up at the top of the heap with me, but I delighted in making the chasm between us and the proletariat as wide as possible. This culminated with a brief period in high school during which I was letting people cheat off me and intentionally feeding them the wrong answers. (Speaking of dumb, they kept coming back. Sadly, my education featured little in the way of academic tracking, which was why I had classes with these people.) This is the sort of thing I should be ashamed of...

What was the first thing you wanted to do when you grew up? Did you do this thing?
I don't recall having a very specific desire one way or the other until high school, when one's thoughts on the topic are expected to become serious, and when I started thinking in the math and science direction in more than a vague sort of way. When I was asked about it as a younger child (Because children always are asked - why is that? Most kids are only aware of maybe a half-dozen professions.) I think I must have claimed "teacher," for lack of a better notion. I do remember people independently suggesting that path, and some of that may have been recognition of native talent that I do know exists and which I exercise in church and volunteer activities. But schoolteacher would probably be the worst possible job for me, as people under 18 still give me hives.

What did you most value doing with your opposite-sex parent? How did this influence you?
Walking and talking. I've always been close to my dad, and of my parents he's the one to value ideation and introspection, so I think I've always made more sense to him. Not that there's anything wrong with my relationship with my mother, but it's significant to their respective characters that his profession (pastor) involves dealing with ideas and life, while hers (librarian) prioritizes categorizing them, wrapping them in plastic, and putting them on shelves.

What's the remark you most resent having had made to you?
Nothing I recall with particularly enduring effects. During childhood, of course, the worst was anything that aimed to pin me with standard expectations for children, as discussed below.

Also in childhood, I was pretty easily crushed by any sort of criticism - I put an awful lot of stake in impression management - and the worst was being criticized for not taking criticism well, which actually happened rather often. This is something else that I more or less just outgrew on a reasonable schedule.

Trend in child-rearing today that annoys you?
This is the kind of question I think is pretty treacherous for childless people to answer - one can't help but have opinions, but chances are high that many of them will be naive. That said, the hyperindulgent helicoptering is troubling...though I would still stand by the truth of this assessment.