Tissues for Thought...

It’s amazing how far back our programming goes and how it affects our day to day choices.

My Dad was in to visit our new home. He enjoyed the tour and was happy for us. Suddenly, in the kitchen his eye catches a box of tissues and he says “Oh, pretty fancy!”.

I knew immediately what he was referring to because growing up with 5 kids in the house - I don’t recall ever seeing a box of Kleenex - we always used toilet paper. If you sneezed or had to blow your nose, it included a run to the bathroom and a pull on the roll.

Here I was, a grown woman feeling I needed to defend my tissue extravagance to my father. I figured, at this point, he must have noticed every room had a box and thought I was Miss Hoity-Toity. I provided, what I thought, a plausible explanation and he just gave me look like I was hopeless.

My grandmothers had boxed tissues. I couldn’t understand why it skipped a generation.

When I had my own home - I bought tissues. It wasn’t because we only had 3 children - it was because I could and it made me feel civilized…and maybe a bit “rich”. Once, when my daughter was 6, we ran out of tissues and I told her to use toilet paper and she said “ewww, that’s gross”. When I told her that’s what I used growing up she was horrified….”toilet” paper?

You learn what you live.

This little incident just reminded me how far back our programing goes and how it effects our habits on the littlest things. When I buy tissues - I do feel wasteful and extravagant at the same time and I have a little conversation with myself and validate the purchase…and this is just tissues.

Do you ever have those moments when you are justifying your actions to yourself? Who are you trying to convince…yourself or someone from your past? Interesting, right?

It’s good now and then to question ourselves…so much of what we do is habit and it’s not always clear which ones are on purpose and which ones are by default.

Thanks for reading this! Gesundheit!