Is it 6 or 9?

One dad shared how his baby suffered from serious skin eczema after being touched by lots of people in a wedding event. The posting went viral shared by fellow parents to raise awareness about protecting baby from being touched by lots of hands. I thought, oh that's nice, new perspective and a reminder of simple stuff that may be overlooked. Like myself, tho not really fond of kids, but smelling, pinching, caressing babies does elevate mood. 

Then after half day, the story unexpectedly brought plenty of cons pointing the dad was a clean freak, or the problem was because parents wiping the baby's cheek with a wet tissue, or their baby's own nature to have eczema.

Woah, things went south. I couldn't see how a friendly and kind reminder can provoke so many people. How internet citizens, parties who basically were no one to the baby or people who "blamed" causing eczema, can get so emotionally involved and took it personally by contributing another defense or offense post in favor of the pro-cons party.

Gosh, people these days really invest lots of emotions to social media.

If there's a thing that I really learned while crossing quarter life age, it is about perspective.

There's one of my friends, lives in a castle-like house, her parents asked her to work in the family business. She said, working for parents is less esteemed. To answer "Ah, I work with my dad" when someone asks about what do you do is just not as cool as "Im working in xxxx as yyyy." That's surprising for me.

For someone who struggled to find an exciting career with tangible personal growth and promising financial security, I always wish that I have a family business passing down for me so at least I have a safety net under me in case I was lost in the middle of the battle of passion vs paycheck. A family business might not be categorized as an "exciting career" but it's a legacy. There are unspoken pressure and hope of course when the kid now was given a chance to continue the business, from the staffs, parents, shareholders, you can call it passion.

But just like above illustration, she calls it nine, I call it six. So I tried to look from her angle. Working on your own shows that you stand up for yourself and recognized by your company and boss who is not your own family while working with your fam shows you are still clinging in the roots and depend on your parents. Perhaps you don't have any special skill so the only employer who accepts you is your momma - hypothetical busybody comment, not mine.


I WANT TO BE HER, SHE WANTS TO BE HIM, HE WANTS TO BE THEM
This opens my eyes. Even for someone who seems to live comfortable and has everything, one might not feel happy and still lacking something. Try to look in another angle. I have saved myself from lots of unfruitful emotions by giving less judgment about stuff.