Why Don't Mennonite Men Hug?

The lighter side of things. A place for humor and joyful things.
Heirbyadoption
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Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2016 1:57 pm
Affiliation: Brethren

Re: Why Don't Mennonite Men Hug?

Post by Heirbyadoption »

Understood. I wouldn't have considered my comment miscontexted, simply clarifying/addressing another aspect. My apologies for any confusion.
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Bootstrap
Posts: 14439
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2016 9:59 am
Affiliation: Mennonite

Re: Why Don't Mennonite Men Hug?

Post by Bootstrap »

Heirbyadoption wrote:Understood. I wouldn't have considered my comment miscontexted, simply clarifying/addressing another aspect. My apologies for any confusion.
Maybe I was just being oversensitive.

At any rate, three cheers for being warm and affectionate without being inappropriate or ritualistically formal. That's great!
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Szdfan
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Affiliation: MCUSA

Re: Why Don't Mennonite Men Hug?

Post by Szdfan »

I'm a bit late to this conversation, but I wonder if this might not be also generational. Neither set of my conservative Mennonite grandparents were physically affectionate in public or to their children. I remember I once impulsively told my grandparents that I loved them. There was this moment of uncomfortable silence and my grandfather replied, "Well, we appreciate that..."

I always knew my grandparents loved me, even if they never directly said that. I also knew that my grandparents were less strict and more accepting with the grandchildren than they were with their own kids.

In contrast, many of my uncles and cousins are much more physically affectionate and the one side of my extended family hugs a lot. My father frequently told me he loved me while I was growing up, in part because he didn't hear that from his own father.

Every family is different, of course, but to me it seems that in some families (at least mine), there's been a loosening of the formality and seriousness that characterized us in the past.
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