Does madness skip a generation?

When you start writing a blog called Slightly Mad Dad then you probably have to question your own sanity at some stage. In fact I do that most days and remember that I have to be slightly mad to be doing what I’m doing!

Of course I get quite a bit of time to watch my son play and grow on a daily basis. This got me thinking about the saying “Madness skips a generation”, where it comes from and is it really true. I punched it into Google and came up with a large number of literary references. However, the top answer was from Answers.yahoo.com and went in to a few people talking about biological and environmental factors and perhaps some medical expertise. In a nutshell they said it was just a rumour! 

With my background as a primary school teacher I always tell my students to question everything they read on the internet. This is exactly what I have done in regards to the meager amount of information I could find through “my friend Google”. In fact I decided I needed to do my own observational studies of my son to see if, in his case, madness has actually skipped a generation.

Observation 1:

H thinks he’s a dog. If we see a dog in the street or in a book or on the television he calls out “Dog!” sticks his tongue out and starts to pant like a dog. It goes beyond this though. We recently visited friends who own three dogs. When we arrived at their house H got excited because he knew there would be dogs there. Upon arrival his first action was to scream to be let into the dogs’ pen. Once we accompanied him into the pen he pushed past two of the dogs (their third - a recently acquired rescue dog backed itself into a corner as a tiny whirlwind of a human advanced upon them) and knelt down in front of their water bowl and helped himself to a drink. What could I do but take my friend’s advice, “We worm them once a month.”

Observation 2:

I once went canyon swinging in New Zealand and being a primary school teacher I did it by sitting in a chair and tipping backwards over the edge. I thought that was a bit mad. H does this already! He sits in his high chair and pushes back from the table to swing on his chair. I found him the other day almost balanced on two legs laughing happily at his newly acquired skill.

Observation 3:

H and I recently spent four days staying with my parents. If it was going to skip a generation I wouldn’t be mad at all (sorry Mum and Dad but it’s true!).

Observation 4:

He mimics his father whenever he gets the opportunity. When I talk about personal grooming he copies what I do. When I say, “I’m brushing my teeth,” he pretends to do his too. If I go to have a shave he starts to rub the side of his face with his hands and make cooing noises. The same goes for combing my hair. The worst bit is if I stop he looks at me, raises his index finger like a cricket umpire and says, “One more!”

Ok – maybe he isn’t mad for doing this but getting mimicked drives me mad. I guess now I know how my Mum and Dad feel about my youth. In fact perhaps observations 3 and 4 say more about me?

Perhaps I’ve done nothing to add to the canon on this important subject of “Does madness skip a generation?” In fact all I’ve really said is I’m definitely a bit mad and my son is too. If I’ve turned out ok so far and I’m having a good time doing it then I’m looking forward to H continuing to be a little bit mad himself.