Other People are Always Really Confident

My low self esteem as a youth was exacerbated by my perception that I was the only sufferer.

The world appeared full of far more confident and assured souls and I was on my own with this one.

This lead to me, much to my shame, being unpleasant and rude to siblings and school mates at times as I thought everyone else in the world was so self assured they would be immune to any form of criticism and I was so unworthy my views weren't worth noting anyway.  

Again, looking at these views thirty years on, I recognise this as self obsessed nonsense. 

Obviously, significant proportions of the population suffer from confidence issues with just about everyone taking dents to their confidence now and again. 

Now I still feel guilty about my rude moments as a kid and try now to be pleasant and helpful recognising that outside appearances are seldom a good indicator of the actual thought processes in someone's head. 

This brings me to Jeff of Absolute Radio of all people. 

He was relating a humourous story from his own childhood on his evening show as I was driving home one night, about family holidays as a child. Basically, his Mum organised the travel arrangements, the accommodation, the currency, the insurance, the packing and every other holiday related task.

His Dad, he said, was responsible for morale suggesting he would crack a few jokes and have a laugh while his Mum became increasingly stressed with all the other responsibilities.

However, is there a serious point in here? Should families have someone responsible for the morale and sense of well being of everyone else. If so who would it be? and what if they needed a boost?

Maybe we should all be responsible for the morale of others as well.