Erin Ruffin’s Weblog

Stanford University in California did a study to determine the difference between the response a person 65+ years old has to winning/losing money and the response a member of Generation Y has to winning/losing money.

The participants were shown cues that they could either win money or lose money.  Their brain activity was monitored throughout the experiment to show what their anxiety level rose to.  The participants also had to rate their excitement and anxiety based on how they were feeling.

The researchers found that both the self-reports of how they felt and the brain monitoring showed that the Gen Y’ers got much more anxious about the prospect of losing money than the 65+ participants.  When it came to the excitement of the prospect of winning money, the responses were the same regardless of age.

It’s interesting to think about the economic fear that Generation Y is experiencing for the first time.  We grew up during the internet boom years, our parents worked really hard to provide for us and the economy has been strong for pretty much as far back as we can remember.  The disastrous economy right now hasn’t been easy for us to stomach, while our grandparents can sit back and say, “yeah, yeah, we’ve been through this before.”

We could probably take some notes from our grandparents in this department – maybe being a little more frugal, living closer to our means, and for goodness sake stop consuming so much stuff.  I don’t want it to come to the point of food rations, bans on nylon, and cutting out everything except the absolute necessities of life like our grandparents did during the depression, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world, would it?  We could probably stand to be more conscious of what we’re buying, use less electricity and water, recycle bags and containers, the list of ways to save money and help out a little goes on and on … and maybe we’d all be a little less stressed out!

This is an ode to my amazing parents.

I was out to dinner last night with my sister when I got a text message from my mom’s cell phone.  I figured it was my dad on my mom’s phone because my mom doesn’t text.  She just doesn’t.

This was the text message:

“Dad is teaching me how to text. What r u eating? Love marm.”
(I call her Marm because that’s what the girls in Little Women called their mom.)

I laughed out loud and passed the phone for my sister to read then she laughed out loud.

I responded with:

“Marm! You’re texting! We shared a pizza with mozzarella and basil. Love Erin.”

I called their house tonight and Mom answered the phone.  10 seconds later I hear the second receiver pick up – there’s Dad!  So I’ve got both my parents on the phone and I ask Mom if she received my text message in response to hers last night.  She said:

“NO! I didn’t! You responded?! I didn’t get it!  It didn’t work!”

Then Dad said:

“Erin, we got it.  It came through – I just haven’t shown her how to read her messages yet.”

Awwwww.

My parents are obsessed with hydration. They believe that all physical (and sometimes mental, emotional, or spiritual) ailments can be fixed by simply drinking more water. I’ve heard about the importance of hydration since I was 3.
I have a headache.
“Drink water.”
I feel nauseous.
“Are you drinking enough water?”
I sprained my ankle and it’s swollen, black, and blue.
“I’ll get you some water.”
It. Never. Failed.
The other day I was on the phone with my mom and it came up (as it tends to do a couple times a week). Usually she reminds me to drink water by noting that my voice sounds a little tired and that I should keep a bottle of water with me everywhere I go.
This particular conversation was meticulously crafted.
“Erin, my friend at work is having a hard time. Her daughter is getting married and she’s just distraught about it.”
“Why is she distraught?”
“Well, she won’t see her as much and, you know, just all the emotions that go along with giving your daughter away. I told her part of me will be relieved when my 3 kids get married. It’ll be nice to know that you have that special someone to come home to and make sure you’re drinking enough fluids when you don’t feel well.”
“Mom, you want me to get married so my husband can make sure I drink enough water?”
“Well, I’m not there to tell you to do it. I’m just saying it will make me feel better.”