Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Jammy Parties for Women
Some of you may not have heard about the latest craze for women over 30...pampering playful slumber parties. Even some hotels are arranging for this jammy party activity with special package deals.
What is accomplished when grown up women get together to have slumber parties that seem to resemble their teenage years can be just that...a return to a time that seemed so much more enjoyable, one in which the female was able to express her emotions with passionate freedom, or one in which the passions were stifled and never expressed.
When women get involved in relationships with men, get married and have their family, it is usual that they also separate from their girlfriends and lose contact with that part of themselves that is fun-loving and free from burdened responsibility. They are now grown up and well aware of expectations about being responsible and giving up the ways of the child.
Some women never experienced intimate relationships with other females during their teens because of the normal competition and insecurities during that period of life. These same women are now in their grown up years, feeling the need to connect with other females to discover and discuss their concerns and experiences...defining their commonality.
Women live and communicate in stories and through emotional connections. These jammy gatherings encourage a casual and intimate environment that seem to bring that sense of "what's missing" into their lives...away from husbands and children. Their husbands may have time away playing golf or traveling and hanging out with other men as part of their day to day life. Women are seldom alone or without the responsibilities that seem to define them. The girl parties are a way of playing, being a bit crazy and having a safe way of releasing a lot of pent up energy and emotion while being validated by others who share their some of their perspectives.
Adolescence is a powerful and passionate time of life. Addictions and emotions run high. Trying to replace those memories when one is grown up reveals the incompletions of the past as well as the adult-by-default structure that we have entrapped ourselves in by being appropriate while fulfilling our pictures and expectations about how life "should" be.
Perhaps, the slumber parties can be viewed as a form of self-help group therapy.
What is accomplished when grown up women get together to have slumber parties that seem to resemble their teenage years can be just that...a return to a time that seemed so much more enjoyable, one in which the female was able to express her emotions with passionate freedom, or one in which the passions were stifled and never expressed.
When women get involved in relationships with men, get married and have their family, it is usual that they also separate from their girlfriends and lose contact with that part of themselves that is fun-loving and free from burdened responsibility. They are now grown up and well aware of expectations about being responsible and giving up the ways of the child.
Some women never experienced intimate relationships with other females during their teens because of the normal competition and insecurities during that period of life. These same women are now in their grown up years, feeling the need to connect with other females to discover and discuss their concerns and experiences...defining their commonality.
Women live and communicate in stories and through emotional connections. These jammy gatherings encourage a casual and intimate environment that seem to bring that sense of "what's missing" into their lives...away from husbands and children. Their husbands may have time away playing golf or traveling and hanging out with other men as part of their day to day life. Women are seldom alone or without the responsibilities that seem to define them. The girl parties are a way of playing, being a bit crazy and having a safe way of releasing a lot of pent up energy and emotion while being validated by others who share their some of their perspectives.
Adolescence is a powerful and passionate time of life. Addictions and emotions run high. Trying to replace those memories when one is grown up reveals the incompletions of the past as well as the adult-by-default structure that we have entrapped ourselves in by being appropriate while fulfilling our pictures and expectations about how life "should" be.
Perhaps, the slumber parties can be viewed as a form of self-help group therapy.
