(no subject)
Dear Daniel,
While I was being dramatic and trying to teach a lesson, the lesson I was trying to teach was different than what you thought. When going from being a child to an adult, it is necessary to learn how the mind operates. It is easy to cast yourself in a certain light and interpret things in that manner. If you carefully read my email to you again, you will see it is all statements of events and facts. I never said anything derogatory or insulting or anything like that. I made it ambiguous subject to a variety of interpretations(intentionally). And at the end I left it up to your judgement. I didn't say yes and I didn't say no. You assumed that I was saying no. I knew you would do that. But the end result was that I wanted to 'toughen you up a bit.' To become more resilient in the face of seeming criticism.
The point is that you will be bombarded with things on down the road. Critiques from teachers, suggestions from classmates etc. To be able to look at things with an objective eye and not interlace your own personal interpretations upon them is a very difficult skill to master. Especially when one feels attacked. I was never good at it and it always held me back in life. I took everything personally and limited myself as a result.
The lesson is this> The other way to have interpreted my email to you was "gee, my parents have spent a lot on me, they must really love me a lot. And they trust me and leave things to my judgement."
Mom and I want to let you know how very proud we are of you and you have our blessings and though it may seem like I am trying to give you a hard time, it is really only to enable you to learn a 'skill set' of little 'life lessons' that I try to throw out at you to help you become a proficient adult.
There is absolutely nothing between you and me that is anything other than that. I don't have any negative feelings about you in any way.
Love,
Dad
While I was being dramatic and trying to teach a lesson, the lesson I was trying to teach was different than what you thought. When going from being a child to an adult, it is necessary to learn how the mind operates. It is easy to cast yourself in a certain light and interpret things in that manner. If you carefully read my email to you again, you will see it is all statements of events and facts. I never said anything derogatory or insulting or anything like that. I made it ambiguous subject to a variety of interpretations(intentionally). And at the end I left it up to your judgement. I didn't say yes and I didn't say no. You assumed that I was saying no. I knew you would do that. But the end result was that I wanted to 'toughen you up a bit.' To become more resilient in the face of seeming criticism.
The point is that you will be bombarded with things on down the road. Critiques from teachers, suggestions from classmates etc. To be able to look at things with an objective eye and not interlace your own personal interpretations upon them is a very difficult skill to master. Especially when one feels attacked. I was never good at it and it always held me back in life. I took everything personally and limited myself as a result.
The lesson is this> The other way to have interpreted my email to you was "gee, my parents have spent a lot on me, they must really love me a lot. And they trust me and leave things to my judgement."
Mom and I want to let you know how very proud we are of you and you have our blessings and though it may seem like I am trying to give you a hard time, it is really only to enable you to learn a 'skill set' of little 'life lessons' that I try to throw out at you to help you become a proficient adult.
There is absolutely nothing between you and me that is anything other than that. I don't have any negative feelings about you in any way.
Love,
Dad