Now I’m the first the admit to the occasional Who magazine purchase, but I personally find it disturbing that I seem to know all the names and birth places of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children yet I couldn’t honestly tell you what some of my cousin’s kids are called or even how many they have. A certain amount of grace needs to be granted here since our tribe well into the hundreds!
Here’s a few questions for you:
• How well do we know celebrities?
• How many times do you pick up a magazine, newspaper or watch the television to read or listen to an interview with a celebrity?
• Name an actress, famous current or historic figure or even a fictional character and think of how many personal facts you know about them.
• Do you find yourself talking about them and their love lives and state of affairs as if they are in your circle of friends?
• Do you find yourself wondering about how long they have left in rehab, if they’ve gone ahead with buying that glamorous pad in the Hollywood hills or if they’ve had their baby yet?
• Do you find yourself influenced by celebrities and/or their characters on TV even if miniscule? e.g. On the famously successful sitcom Friends, the character Rachel Green played by Jennifer Aniston gave birth to a baby girl and named her Emma. Not only was the name copied by thousands of women due to give birth shortly after the high rating episode, but in the lead up, opinion polls guessing the yet to be revealed name appeared on chat shows, in newspapers and radio shows.
If you sheepishly answered yes to most of these it shows that we not only know much about fictional television characters, but we know way too much about their off screen lives than we ought to. For instance, what stage of the rehab program they’re up to, how much they paid for their house, what rifts are hurting their family members, what state their relationships are in, the secret demons they struggle with, when their first baby is due, if they’re hoping for a boy or a girl, what names they are thinking of choosing, what hospital they are delivering at, who visits them, what gifts the baby received, etc. The list could go on.
I made a video a few years ago of my daughter and asked her a stack of questions. She answered most of them exactly how I assumed she would, but with a few of them she really surprised me. I realised that I actually didn’t know as much as I could have about my own daughter.
Think of all the members of your family. How well do you really know them? How often do you sit down and have a real conversation with them? Most conversations can be reduced to a pile of questions about the day and orders before bedtime if we’re not careful.
I would hate to think that I am closer to Posh Spice or Jude Law (hold that thought…) than I am with my own extended family just because I pay more attention to what magazines write about them.
Here are some suggestions for finding out more about those in your world. I am sure there are a million other ways, but try these if you like:
• Interview your children and record it. Write down your questions before hand.
• Get your kids to interview you. This in itself will be interesting as most children only ask questions that directly impact them.
• Write a questionnaire as part of a family night activity. Most kids love talking about themselves. Throw in some funny questions to keep it light and less like filling out a visa application.
• Try going around the dinner table and pose scenarios to everyone. This gives you insight into how your children think and what their true gauge on life is. e.g. What would you do in such and such situation?
• Email everyone in your extended family and fun questionnaire and ask them to respond within a certain time frame. Date, copy and bind them all and send everyone a copy. Not only will you know much more about each other and have printed family tree history, you might even find you have more in common with each other than just a last name.
Let us know how you go.
Michaela.
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