Awfully Personal Question for July 10, 2004

Welcome to That’s Awfully Personal, an opportunity for blog writers and readers to reveal a little more about themselves than might normally happen during the daily blogging process, and hence get to know each other a bit better. It’s a little like the late, great Friday Five, but more challenging. Each week our Awfully Personal Panel will post one or more new questions for you to answer on your blog, or in the comment space below if you don’t have a blog.

For more on how That’s Awfully Personal works, please see the How to Play section below. Here is this week’s Awfully Personal Question:

When we’re young, we all do things we will eventually regret later. And over time, the standards of ‘regrettable’ behaviour change — Something your parents might have done could shock you, and vice versa. Even more difficult is deciding what, and when, to own up to some of these regrettable acts, especially if it’s your parents, late in life, or your kids, at the same age you were, doing the asking.

What’s the most regrettable youthful thing (a) your parents ever admitted doing, (b) you’ve ever admitted doing, and (c) your children ever admitted doing [if you don’t have kids, tell us instead what you will/would be most worried about them doing]? Do you think standards of behaviour have gotten easier or tougher since your parents were young? How honest do you think your parents were in admitting to you what they did when they were young? How honest were you to them when you were young? And when your kids ask(ed) you what’s the worst thing you did when you were young, how honest were you (will you be)? Do you think they were (will be) completely honest in return? And are there situations when complete honesty is not the best policy?

How to Play “That’s Awfully Personal”:

Subscribe to (i.e. join) this Yahoo group to get the weekly question(s) sent to you automatically by e-mail each Friday.
On Saturday, or whenever you get around to it, post one of the questions and your answer to it on your weblog or web site.
Then come back here (you may want to bookmark this site) and click the ‘comment’ button under the question(s) of the week. If it’s your first time, you’ll be asked to enter your e-mail and the URL of your blog or website. Then just note that your answer is up. Other readers will then be able to read it on your site by simply clicking on your name in the comments thread. You can check out other people’s answers at the same time. Or, if you don’t have a blog or website, you can post your answer right in the comment box.
If you have questions or observations about “That’s Awfully Personal”, or would like to become part of our Awfully Personal Panel that selects the weekly questions, e-mail us.
If you have a suggestion for Question of the Week, e-mail us and our Panel will review it and, if selected, they will acknowledge you as the author with a link to your blog. Questions should ideally be challenging, so that the answers will be revealing (when answered honestly). But this isn’t Truth or Dare — we want people to want to answer honestly and to have to think a bit before they do.
“That’s Awfully Personal” was developed when The Friday Five closed down. The questions are more thought-provoking and, well, more personal than most Friday Five questions. If they’re too serious for you, here’s a group that is resurrecting The Friday Five, which you might enjoy instead.