Its Just What I Think

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I am the father of 3 small children.  The oldest is 4, the second is 20 months, the smallest is 3 1/2 months (the boy).  I have tried, and continue to try, to instill certain values in them.  Question  what you read or hear.  Don't accept what anybody tells you as gospel truth.  Be curious.  Be respectful.  Share what you have.

I have tried to keep the oldest aware that not everybody has the stuff we have.  Some people don't have enough food, clothes, etc.  We try (and I hope all parents try) to show their kids the people we'd like them to be.  Lord knows I am trying.  It is difficult, though, to be the person you want them to be.  I tend to be impatient, judgmental, and often unfairly critical of people I don't even know.  I don't want my kids to be that way.

In any event, we just keep pushing forward and teaching what we hope is how to be a good person.  Interestingly, my daughter will start soccer next week.  All of the lessons we teach (sharing, don't take things from people) will be untaught during teh first practice.  Like most sports, you have to try to take the ball.  You don't share with people that are not on your team.  in fact, somebody might actually get pushed to the ground.  I am curious how she will handle the change in lessons.

A friend of ours from down the street has a 4 year old boy.  He joined soccer last summer and had some trouble with the competition.  I dont' think that is abnormal.  For a child's early life, we teach them to act a ceratin way, and then they join a soccer or basketball team and those lessons don't serve them well.  I know it is part of them growing up, but I am interested in how children handle that change.

I suppose it is really just more of life and learning.  In the end, we do the best we can with the kids and hope they turn out a little better than us.

By the way, enjoy this link.  I found this unbelievably funny.  It is video of a woman texting, not watching where she was going, and falling in a fountain.  Maybe we all should be more aware of our surroundings. :)