I love this!!! We parents need to make a stand & this guy did! Way to go dad! Here's my take on parenting, nobody said this was going to be easy & fun all of the time! This is the hardest job ever but the most rewarding. However, to get to the rewarding part is not easy. My dad always says the only easy day was yesterday! I believe that and remind myself of that often. Why do we as parents let our kids get away with so much more than our parents did? Because it's easier and we're busy. Because we have "better things to do"...seriously what better things to do than...
#1 sustain life to another person (baby phase)
What could be more pressing than this? This little person loves you no matter what & needs you, that's an awesome feeling!
#2 teach the little person how to talk, walk, eat by himself (toddler/ preschool phase)
Wow, we get to teach them how to take care of themselves all while they look up to us & want to be just like us! Can I just say AWESOME! Yes this time of life everything takes twice as long to accomplish but really it's so worth it. I will want this time back when they're teenagers acting out!
#3 form their morals & shape who they'll become (school age phase)
That's an amazing thought in itself, that we as their parents form who they'll be when they grow up & leave home to go out into this great big world. This great big world that we should be preparing them for instead of sheltering them from it. Preparing for all the good is fun but preparing them for the bad is hard to do.
I'm speaking from experience for the #1-3, my children are 11,8,3, & 4 months. The rest is what I'm hearing from my friends with older children & of course my parents! Just so you know where I'm at on this great journey!
#4 train them for their own life (older school age phase)
So by this point they don't like us parents, as if you liked your parents when you were this age. If we cave to them now, their lives could forever go down a wrong path that we can't get them off of. The way the world is now, one wrong turn down the road of life and it could change them forever. If we choose not to take a stand and teach our children the hard lessons of life (drugs, sex, rape, abuse, just to name a few) then we have done them an injustice and we should be to blame. Not to say that some will do all the right things & their children will still take the wrong path, but that doesn't mean we stop trying! Because as parents we must love our children ALWAYS...just as God loves us.
#5 watch them stretch their wings & fly (leaving home phase)
This is where we get to see all that work pay off in so many ways. This is when we reconnect with our spouse and remember how hard things were but how amazing they are now.
#6 take part in raising your grandchildren (the next generation)
My parents say that having grand children is way better than having children! I'm sure it is. How great is it to be involved with your children's children! To be able to see all that hard work pay off in their offspring. Life comes full circle.
That's just a few quick thoughts this video made me think! None of us have all the answers but if we'd work together maybe just maybe the American family will survive & thrive.
This is my number one thing I hope to teach my children, that they can talk to me about anything! I'm open with them about everything & man is that harder than I ever thought! But I want them to make decisions in life with as much knowledge as possible. They won't be able to say but I didn't know any better, because I constantly tell them & talk with them about all kinds of things. Just watch the news & let them ask whatever they want & be open with them....try explaining prostitution to an 11 & 8 year old boys!!! Or the whole Penn State scandal. That was hard but worth being honest. Now back to this dad, I say way to go! Let me teach my children to be respectful, thoughtful, hardworking, & to always trust God!
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