So, here’s the thing. I don’t need to see you ever again. I don’t need to be in your presence, eat your food, play with your kids. I don’t need to come to your house for a holiday celebration or meet you at a restaurant to catch-up. I thrived during the lockdowns because then I didn’t have to waste my creative energy making up excuses as to why I cannot make it to your party, your wedding, your gender reveal. People drain the lifeblood out of me murderously fast. As a filmmaker, I can spend 16 hours doing interviews. As long as I have a camera in my hand, I have unearthly stamina. Take that camera away and ask me to drum up small talk at a conference or social gathering, and I need a nap after about 15 minutes. I am a classic introvert.
I have always been this way, and it has taken me my entire life to come to terms with it because it just seems rude to say these things. But they are true and are not meant to hurt anyone. Just because I don’t need to see you doesn’t mean that I don’t like you or love you or will never invite you over again. I just don’t need it. Once you have settled into my heart, you live there, in the present. I promise if you are my friend or a member of my family, I think about you every single day even if I haven’t seen you in 20 years. I wonder how you are, maybe pick up the phone, but likely not because I know that if there was something I needed to know, someone would tell me, and then I would be the first person on a plane, train or car to come to you. Ask around. It’s true.
So, connection to me might not look the same to you and it shouldn’t. You are you, and I am me, and your little ones are developing into who they will eventually be. There are a few articles out there about raising introverted children. Here is one that might be of interest to you, if you are in any way like me. "6 Struggles of Raising Introverted Children as an Introverted Parent"
https://introvertdear.com/news/6-struggles-of-raising-introverted-children-as-an-introverted-parent/
Love, Betty
