This is rather fascinating! I was of course most shocked by the flute-playing, but I have to agree that "whistling" fits rather better in several ways.
with the exception of an FW biography by David "Getting the hell out of Prussia!" Fassmann
heeee. Seems to be a thing for FW's fools, writing FW biographies? Having said that, I don't want to read Gundling's, if he did turn out to write one. :P (I mean, I will avidly read any reader report! But, oof.)
that whoever was youngest, out of the baby state and in the adorable toddler stage but not yet as old as to show a personality with likes and dislikes was second fave.
Ahahahaha. Yeeeah. I definitely know people who are great with babies and toddlers and... not so much with older kids who might, horrors, disagree with you.
it's likely that he had more positive than negative memories of the place, and that FW scolding and/or hitting him can't have been the rule it was for Fritz, but more the exception.
...hmmmmm, I mean, I totally believe that Heinrich wasn't scolded/hit as much as Fritz was, in large part (as you've said) because being younger and one of many kids at that point (and not the crown prince) made him blend in a lot better than Fritz. But the way it is phrased -- unless it is a translation thing -- makes me think that being scolded, at least, was pretty normal for him, and being hit wasn't rare although maybe not super common.
ETA: Now I've always thought that FW's negative feedback loop with Fritz and his positive feedback loop with AW was most closely connected to how they made him feel about himself, and that's as good a demonstration as any. FW feels miserable and sees himself as an evil, bad tempered man? Maybe even Wilhelm is a child of the devil, too. FW feels like a good father and merciful sovereign? Wilhelm is a good boy and good Christian.
Oh, yeah, you've mentioned this before and it makes a lot of sense. (I have one child who seems to pick up all the bad parts of my parenting and reflect them back at me, and one child who seems to pick up all the good parts of my parenting and reflect them back at me. (It's not really objectively like that, but it does frequently seem like that.) I try very hard not to treat them differently because of this, but I could totally see a, er, un-self-aware parent who also had issues with his own self-worth getting into a pretty bad negative feedback loop.)
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timeasmymeasure
Re: FW and the Younglings
Date: 2021-04-16 04:48 am (UTC)with the exception of an FW biography by David "Getting the hell out of Prussia!" Fassmann
heeee. Seems to be a thing for FW's fools, writing FW biographies? Having said that, I don't want to read Gundling's, if he did turn out to write one. :P (I mean, I will avidly read any reader report! But, oof.)
that whoever was youngest, out of the baby state and in the adorable toddler stage but not yet as old as to show a personality with likes and dislikes was second fave.
Ahahahaha. Yeeeah. I definitely know people who are great with babies and toddlers and... not so much with older kids who might, horrors, disagree with you.
it's likely that he had more positive than negative memories of the place, and that FW scolding and/or hitting him can't have been the rule it was for Fritz, but more the exception.
...hmmmmm, I mean, I totally believe that Heinrich wasn't scolded/hit as much as Fritz was, in large part (as you've said) because being younger and one of many kids at that point (and not the crown prince) made him blend in a lot better than Fritz. But the way it is phrased -- unless it is a translation thing -- makes me think that being scolded, at least, was pretty normal for him, and being hit wasn't rare although maybe not super common.
ETA:
Now I've always thought that FW's negative feedback loop with Fritz and his positive feedback loop with AW was most closely connected to how they made him feel about himself, and that's as good a demonstration as any. FW feels miserable and sees himself as an evil, bad tempered man? Maybe even Wilhelm is a child of the devil, too. FW feels like a good father and merciful sovereign? Wilhelm is a good boy and good Christian.
Oh, yeah, you've mentioned this before and it makes a lot of sense. (I have one child who seems to pick up all the bad parts of my parenting and reflect them back at me, and one child who seems to pick up all the good parts of my parenting and reflect them back at me. (It's not really objectively like that, but it does frequently seem like that.) I try very hard not to treat them differently because of this, but I could totally see a, er, un-self-aware parent who also had issues with his own self-worth getting into a pretty bad negative feedback loop.)