“As my grandmother says...”

Surely we have all heard or said this phrase in several situations. Family education is vital in our development; we learns many things from our grandmothers! When we are little boys or girls, we are growing up within a family, which is everything to us. We learn about the world through the eyes of our parents, grandparents, older brothers and sisters; they are our contact with the outside world. Maybe we learn about love, about safety, about fun; but if our relatives have prejudices and stereotypes about people, we inevitabily learn them as well. Family education is vital, also, in the persistance of stereotypes.

Our relatives want the best for us. We have to understand that they, specially our grandparents, grew up in other times, when society was different, and surely there were unacceptable attitudes for them that are normal to us and vice-versa. For example, my grandmother did not kissed my grandfather until they got married, actually they have barely talked to each other! Women who kissed their boyfriends were seen as “used”. On the other hand, it was normal for them to discriminate brown-skinned people calling them “indios”. Some of these old-fashioned ideas were taught to our parents, and may have been taught to us as well.

Although sometimes old-fashioned ideas seem to be better than today's, the truth is that any stereotype can hurt people. More important, they can as well affect the way we see people and may make us lose opportunities to get to know very interesting and valuable human beings. If we get conscious of any thought or feeling that may affect us or others, we should change it, even if itwas learned from our loved ones.

When we are little, we do not have enough experience to disagree with our relatives. What we learn from our family stays deep in our heart and mind; but we can change some of these ideas through critical thinking and reflection. We just need to have our minds open to change.