The Sins of the Parents

A lot of people blame their parents for a lot of their problems and they are just being stupid and whiny. For every neurosis that someone thinks a parent instilled, I bet it's mostly genetics repeating across generations. Everything from height, body type, voice, face, sweat glands, you name it, is given over to the offspring. All it takes is to know yourself pretty well, then have children and watch how the same traits and behaviors all pop up in your kid without any prodding from you. It's cloning with a few wild cards thrown in and is kind of cool from an ego standpoint.

For better or worse, who your parents are can drive a lot of how the margins of your life turn out. Outside of their input in your rearing (where to live, reading books to you, values to instill, etc.) research is showing lately that height and looks contribute materially to one's success or lack of it in life. These are not the sins of the parents.

The sins of the parents are the conscious choices that their children have to bear for the rest of their lives. Getting poor prenatal care. Damaging one's sperm and eggs through drug use or stupid, avoidable exposure to toxic chemicals. Smoking during pregnancy. Reproducing with the scum of the earth who are abusive or irresponsible. Waiting far too late to have children and there by upping the chances of causing crippling disabilities. Expecting the schools to feed your kids three times a day so you don't have to.

The truth is that a good portion of parents are the same lazy, self-interested assholes you see every day. The enormity of this is hard to appreciate until you become a parent and see these morons in action. It's clear they didn't have a child thinking about how their own stupid decisions and habits will manifest as a host of medical problems, deformities or disorders years or decades later. They just wanted a thing, an ornament, a play doll or a pet or a status symbol to make their spouse or relatives happy.

So they commit their short-sighted sins, and damage, doom and hamper the next generation. Their kids, like all others, already will have the usual genetic roulette wheel to deal with, as well as the consequences of their own behavior. They don't need to bear their parents' stupidity as a cross for their entire lives.

The Trackball doesn't hold anything against people that they cannot control, but he is totally merciless in condemning them when they screw up what they can control. Lucky for many of them that it's almost impossible to tell how much of a congenital defect is due to their screw up versus random chance. It helps the child back off of feeling outright rage towards Dum and Dud and muddles it down to bitter disappointment.