Get it? Ha ha. Mom, Dad, which one of you is going to take responsibility for passing on a bad sense of humor?
I've always been intrigued by genetics and what gets passed down from parent to child. The other day, I was looking at a photograph of Toby's maternal grandmother with my mom and we both turned to each other and said, "That's Lucy's nose." It's amazing to me that a specific feature can be passed down four generations (if not more).
Even more interesting is noticing personality traits that have been passed down. All three of our girls have decidedly different reactions to similar events and circumstances. Of course, this makes it hard to perfect the art of parenting. (I love John Wilmot's quote, "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children. Now I have six children and no theories.") There has long been a debate between "nature vs. nurture" when it comes to analyzing children and the adults they come to be. As a parent, the differences you notice between your children from day one make a strong argument for "nature", but an interesting article I read recently states that only "[a]bout one-fourth of the variation in life experiences — from strictness of parents to difficulties with friends — can be traced to genetic origins." (click here for full article.) Yet the article also argues that it's more complicated than it looks on the surface because "we tend to think of the environment as something that just happens to us, but in fact animals actively seek out surroundings that are compatible with their genetic predispositions."
As time goes on, I'm curious to see what surroundings the girls seek out as a result of their predisposition toward those environments. Toby and I have pretty different personalities, but when I think of the environments we sought out and predispositions we might pass on, I can't help but consider how we met in Ecuador. Images of riding on top of buses, hitchhiking in the back of pick up trucks and swimming in a muddy jungle river flash in my mind. Maybe I should start suppressing the travel gene now?
1 comment:
I share your endless fascination with genes, what gets passed, what doesn't and why. Also, when considering certain "strong" traits of ancestors of mine, I always wonder if they were from nature or from environment b/c many of them had such unbelievable difficult lives. I remember reading an article about some little aquatic worm or something that developed a "helmet" only in the presence of a particular predator. When born in a different environment, the helmet did not appear. So, the genes adjusted to the environment. And then there are apples and tulips.....anyway, so fascinating. And having more than one kid is so interesting b/c you realize how different they can be from the same family. Love this post!
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