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Coming Clean


A story about recognizing where you come from and understanding the ...
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What are the impactful events of your childhood that shaped your development as a teenager and beyond?

Created: 07/22/13

Replies: 5

Posted Jul. 22, 2013 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

What are the impactful events of your childhood that shaped your development as a teenager and beyond?

Kim became a perfectionist in high school in response to her inability to control her home life. What are the impactful events of your childhood that shaped your development as a teenager and beyond?


Posted Jul. 30, 2013 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
lynna

Join Date: 04/24/13

Posts: 14

RE: What are the impactful events of your childhood that shaped your development as a teenager and beyond?

In my childhood, both of my parents were perfectionists. I knew that they both loved me very much, but I also knew, some how, that what I did was almost more important than who I was. So I learned that I must do everything very, very well. My father used to say that "if something is worth doing, it is worth doing RIGHT!" That seemed to be the way to earn love and recognition. So I also learned to be a perfectionist. For much of my life I was tidy, hard working, and did things very well. As I got older, though, and life became more complicated, and I married a man who was not a perfectionist, the pressure to always be perfect became more and more difficult. At some point, in some parts of my life, I sort of stopped trying, and eventually, with three children and a not so tidy husband, I became a clutterer. Not a hoarder, nothing like the parents in this book, but enough so that I can have some empathy for them. I am working so hard at resolving my cluttering ways. I am not sure how I got to this place, but I do know that being loved for what I did as much or more than for just who I was had a negative impact on me and how I felt about myself. In a positive way, it did encourage me to work hard and do well, but I'm not sure the good outweighed the bad in my case.


Posted Aug. 06, 2013 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
craftymbs

Join Date: 06/12/13

Posts: 5

RE: What are the impactful events of your childhood that shaped your development as a teenager and beyond?

Not so much my childhood as my marriage! A little mess doesn't bother me, however, I married a neat freak!
I just tell myself it's his quirk, not mine! We've been married almost 30 years so I guess we've adjusted!


Posted Aug. 12, 2013 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
rebeccar

Join Date: 03/13/12

Posts: 564

RE: What are the impactful events of your childhood that shaped your development as a teenager and beyond?

In 5th grade my teacher lost my entire notebook of creative writing. Lots of poems and stories. I hadn't done them as an assignment; I just loved to write, and I wanted her opinion. Towards the end of the school year, as I saw the room being gradually packed up, I started asking if I could have it back. I always wondered how she could lose it and never find it. Years later when part of my career path included being a teacher, I was very careful with any items that students brought in to show me.


Posted Aug. 12, 2013 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kristenh

Join Date: 10/22/10

Posts: 14

RE: What are the impactful events of your childhood that shaped your development as a teenager and beyond?

I think the event in my life that had the most impact in shaping me was growing up with an alcoholic parent because I am very conscious and careful about how much I drink because I never want anyone around me to have to live through what I did.


Posted Aug. 19, 2013 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
carmen s

Join Date: 04/27/11

Posts: 33

RE: What are the impactful events of your childhood that shaped your development as a teenager and beyond?

I grew up really poor. I worked really hard to get where I am and really appreciate the little things. My mom and dad did the best they could, it was a different time. My older sister is never happy and blames the past. I think you have to make your own path and not blame it on the way you were raised. I wondered how Kim's parents were raised, my mom grew up during the depression and was a food hoarder in her later life.


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