Insightful Edge

Sounding like an old duffer

“Please can I have a mobile phone Mum”? I looked in astonishment at my five year old son.  “Don’t you think you are a bit young to have a mobile mate” was my reply.  How can a five year old want a mobile and anyway, who would he call?  None of his mates have a mobile yet – a concept that seems to have not occurred to him.

I must admit I nearly passed out when six months ago he asked me for hair gel.  At the risk of sounding like an old duffer (at 42); are the kids growing up a bit too quick?

When he’s a bit older, I will of course get him a mobile; but five is far too young in my opinion.  Also I have a feeling that he won’t want a basic standard mobile; he’ll want an iphone – just like mine.  As he already navigates his way around my iphone and knows how to do things on it that I didn’t know existed, it’s hardly surprising.  Perhaps he just likes playing Temple Run and see’s mobiles as being games devices rather than the function they were originally designed for.

I knew that this would happen one day,  perhaps it happens when you pass the big four zero.  At parents evening last night; the other teachers in my son’s primary school looked about 15.  That’s roughly when the penny started to drop; in few years I’ll have turned into my mother and will be a real curtain twitcher. 

I suppose it all boils down to feedback  and change.  When toys etc break, my children automatically bring them to me to be fixed as I am apparently in charge of quality assurance as well.  Sometimes the feedback from them isn’t quite what I was expecting if my DIY fixing skills aren’t up to scratch.  Feedback is such an important part of our lives.  How else do we know whether or not we are doing a good job? My feedback recently has been to step up the quality assurance on fixing Buzz Lightyear.  Take this into the workplace and suddenly your cheese has been moved....

If the end of the last sentence has left you wondering if I’ve lost the plot then it’s time to order your copy of  Who Moved my Cheese? By Dr Spencer Johnson.

The ‘cheese’ is a metaphor for what you want to have in life – whether it is a good job, a relationship, money, possessions, health or spiritual peace of mind.

It’s a profound story about four characters searching for cheese in a maze.  The maze (again is a metaphor, this time for ‘life’) is basically where you look for what you want. 

I was told to read this book once when I’d asked for feedback.  It basically taught me to adapt to change quickly and to embrace it.  After all, change will happen whether we like it or not.  Since reading this short story; I’ve become a bit of a change junkie.

We all need feedback in our lives.  If used constructively it can strengthen skills and although we maybe don’t like to admit our weaknesses, we all have them and  feedback can help to recognise  them.   I recognise that feedback and change walk hand in hand, sometimes we don’t want it, but ultimately without, it can be difficult to see what we need to do to make it easier to get the things we want.

So, back to my small but growing up too quickly son; should I ask him for feedback on whether or not I’m turning into his Nana..... not sure if I want to hear the answer, but I’ll get back to you on that one.