Frankly, I have never been a big evolution-believer, unless you can link it into Creation (which I think is possible, but that is another story.) Recently my daugher told me that we, as humans, are losing our canine teeth. They are no longer necessary and are slowly disappearing from the mouths of babies all over the world. I have no proof myself but she is smart and so I believe her.
There is one sign of evolution I have been noticing however. When my children's generation put the brakes on in the car, there is no simultaneous arm slap toward the person in the seat next to you. Every car generation through mine has moms who instinctively throw their arms across the person next to her when brakes are applied. This can be embarassing on a bus or train, but we cannot help it. Personally I am sure I have knocked the breath out of several people in my effort to protect them.
My children don't do that. Why would they? First, the kids are safely buckled in car seats behind them. An arm block would do no good whatsoever. Second, in a minivan or an SUV, the other person is far out of reach of that arm. Therefor, this is the first group of moms who have not developed that protective stance.
Is this a sign of evolution? Or is it something less? I report, you decide.
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5 comments:
My mom played the role of front seat co-driver. She was always telling me to slow down, spped up and how they weren't going to pay if I got in an accident from parallel parking. And you know what's funny? My mother never had a driver's license. She never learned how to drive.
Pat, you're right! I had forgotten about how we threw our hands out to protect our kids, just as our mothers did to us. Believe it or not, I have one daugther that does that to me. I think it's sweet. I ignore the black eye and go on! LOL
My oldest as a baby didn't have a car seat, I remember her in a little basket carrier that was placed in such a way as she didn't slide around. But infant seats were starting to come out.
Now my kids are the back-seat drivers and prefer to drive me around. I just take a deep breathe and pray silently that the angels will protect me :)
My Mom died when I turned 16 and got my license so I have no memories of her watching me learning how to drive except one. She would not let me drive in a funeral procession. She said it was way too hard to follow other cars. I still laugh about it many years later and never figured out what she was thinking.
Evolution doesn't happen nearly this quickly -- cars have not been around for the many, many generations it would take for an instinctive behavioral change to occur, and it's not clear there would be enough of a natural selection force to cause this kind of a change (although parents who fail to protect their children do tend to have less progeny that survive and reproduce, so maybe...)
But humans' social habits are a lot more flexible from generation to generation. When you've always worn a seatbelt, and your kids have always worn a seatbelt or been in a car seat, and have never seen your child moving forward when decelerating, it would never occur to you to throw an arm out to protect him/her. That's a habit that is thankfully obsolete.
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