IS THERE A SHOE GENE?

Nature vs Nurture

The purpose of this blog is to engage with other who love life, encourage those who are nervous about aging, and entertain those who enjoy laughing at themselves. Please comment in the section below.

When I was young, I definitely believed that a child’s  environment influenced his or her behavior more than genetics ever could.    But over the years, I started noticing a similar behavior in three different generations of women in my family. I began wondering if there could be a gene that caused women to become crazy shoe fanatics? Ha!

From the time I was a toddler and even after my mom passed away, I loved to wear her shoes.  She had every style and color imaginable.  And if she couldn’t find what she wanted, she’d create them herself with ribbon, sequins and hot glue. I’ll never forget the denim flats she painted with flowers and butterflies to liven up her outfit. 

After Mom died, I think my survival gene  went into overdrive because I shipped boxes and boxes of her special shoes home to me.  We donated the two huge boxes that were left to a hurricane relief group in the Caribbean.  To this day, whenever they show videos of poor little Haitian  girls on TV, I search for my mom’s shiny green patent leather shoes.

It was really embarrassing the day I wore her bright blue heels  to school.  As I was strolling  around the room, I suddenly noticed I was having trouble balancing – that one leg seemed shorter than the other.  Yikes! I didn’t realize the one old sole  was actually disintegrating as I walked, leaving  little dingle balls of rubber  behind me.     

Then there was the time after school,  I realized I had worn  two different colored shoes of hers all day.  The next morning I asked my students if they had noticed.  I had to laugh when they showed me the note they had passed around the room betting on whether or not I had done  that on purpose. 

In the last month I’ve been receiving a different pair of orange shoes I ordered in the mail every week.  I want to wear them with a special dress  I bought for  my granddaughter’s wedding in March.  I hope I can decide by then…

I have to admit I’ve been thinking about this  Nature vs Nurture debate a lot recently because one of my daughters also seems  obsessed with shoes.   Did I  teach her that or could she have inherited it from her grandmother? 

I’m still trying to recover from the days when she was younger and would come out of her room before school with two different shoes on and ask me which one I liked the best.   When I chose one, she’d sulk back into her room as if I had  sentenced her to death. It was even worse when I tried a different approach asking, “Which one do you like the best?”

Then she’d huff back into her room murmuring,  “I like them both!” 

Today she decorates her  science classroom with shoes, motivational sayings and butterflies to liven up the place. Even  high school athletes are impressed with her coaching shoes, asking where she got those awesome  orange NIKEs .   

It’s kinda strange. My daughter and I both wear Size 6 shoes, love the color Orange and adore Monarch butterflies — just like my mom did.

Nature or Nurture?

Experts now acknowledge that Nature & Nurture  actually interact with each other — both playing major roles in the psychological development of children.  It’s no longer one over the other — genetics vs environment.  They say inherited physical characteristics and personality traits combine with parenting style and educational experiences to “make the man” (or woman) – not the clothes (or shoes) as Mark Twain once said.

And, you know what I found out with age ~

It’ll Be OK.

~~~

“Nature vs Nurture Either Way It’s Your Parents’ Fault” ~ Amazon shirt

COMMENT: Do you noticed a personality trait or physical characteristic in your family?