Mannings Arm Wrestling With My Father and Vowells Shooting Dad - Essay Example

His father was into guns while Vowell was into music and art. Both Vowell and Manning had expressed distance and separation from their father which is characteristic of a generation gap. The son and the daughter however begun to understand their fathers when they matured. In Manning’s case, the son understood why the father was so critical of his performance, it was because he is pushing him to be the best he can be. In Vowell’s case, the daughter understood how alike she is to her father that “We’re both smart-alecky loners with goofy projects and weird equipment.

” Differences in opinion, taste and preference are natual between a parent and a child. They may be genetically almost similar but they are still different person. They grew up in different generation and being such, their perspectives in life general can be different. These differences however does not have to escalate to a level of conflict whereby the child will feel distant and alienated to the father. This typically happens when the father over-impose himself and when there are unhealed grudges in the child.

I have personally seen how unhealed grudges can ruin a father-child relationship in some of my friends. I am just lucky because my father is very supportive, understanding and loving that even if we have differences as a result of our generation gap, they were trivial and we even kid ourselves about it. My father condescends my type of music as loud while I tease him back that his type of music as old and dragging. He may be sarcastic at times when he reminds me of my priorities but I understand it to be his way of getting in to me so I will not get wayward with my life.

I know he loves me because I felt it and he does not hesitate to show it to me. I also have a profound respect for my father for the kind of man he is. I am appreciative because I know hat some of my friends are not that lucky with their parents. I have this close friend who has an abusive father. His father does not reprimand him out of the intention of correcting his ways or make him better but just to rebuke him and make him feel bad. I know because I witnessed it when I visited him in their house.

I do not know why and the only logical thing I can think about why does it is because of his alcohol and drug problem. As a result, my friend answers back to his father in a disrespectful manner and the exchange of words between are not pretty and unfit to be written in this paper. Suffice to say that they were harsh and some were even obscene. This explains why my friend rarely stays in their house and is always hanging out with his friends and angry with the world. My friend also gets in trouble frequently perhaps due to the pent up anger he has with his father.

I am well aware that children should be respectful of their father. But fathers should also strive to become respectable and really be a father to their children. They should mend their ways so that they will have the moral ascendancy to advise their children to be live upright. In the case of my friend’s father, the father cannot do anything when my friend answers back to his father that before advising him to fix his life, to fix his life first. That is pretty harsh but it is quite true. Also, when giving reprimands, fathers should be kind when they admonish their child so that it will not create distance and generation gap.

This usually happens