Thanks for the warm fuzzies. Mojo.



Quote:
It seems like you never really bonded with either of your parents.

This is very true, and it is characteristic of the Type 4 not to have bonded with either parent.

I have a couple of pictures of me in Japan sitting with my dolls in a group portrait. I was never much into baby dolls, but there was a clown, a giraffe, a Little Lulu (from the comic book)... about a dozen all together. . I understand (and this may or may not be true), that when I came down with measles on the ship, the authorities took all my dolls away and burned them. \:\( (Gee, Officer Krupke... golly moses, that's why I'm a mess!)

My parents generally did not buy me things, but then I was a little kid in an era where brand name items, clothing, toys weren't a big deal. There were always parents who went overboard with presents, but I'm not sure the general over-the-top consumerism was as bad as it is now. There certainly wasn't the huge range of electronic gadgets that we have now.

I didn't have a bike until I bought myself one when I was a senior in college. I didn't have music or dance lessons. No pets (except parakeets). My parents didn't have people over for dinner or parties. I never had a birthday party. There was just this sense that those things were things Other People did, but they were not for us. Those things didn't even seem possible for me.

We DID go to the library just about every week no matter where we lived. I remember when I was really little and could read any "kid's book" through in one sitting, that to me the epitome of grown-up-ness was to read a book that you could not finish in one sitting, such that you had to use that symbol of adult sophistication: the book mark.

My parents were never very involved or interested in my life. I truly believe that books were my parents. I went to books for the things that children go to their parents for: information, solace, comfort, encouragement, truth, laughs, how to do things, etiquette & manners, stories. Books raised me.




The more I think of it, I think that gift-giving isn't my primary love language-- although it is up there, and gift giving has a lot of significance to me, because the gift giver thought about me when he wasn't with me, and thought through what I might like, and then went out of his way to get the thing. I think I need to take the test again and see which is number one.