A father had three very active boys.

One summer evening, he was playing cops and robbers in the back yard after dinner.

One of the boys "shot" his father and yelled, "Bang! You're dead!"

He slumped to the ground and when he didn't get up right away, a neighbor ran over to see if he had been hurt in the fall.

When the neighbor bent over, the overworked father opened one eye and said,

"Shhh. Don't give me away. It's the only chance I've had to rest all day."

Over the years I have had the privilege of watching parents raise their children in many different ways. Being a parent myself I know, first hand, how tiring it can be.

I saw my wife get up with the kids when they were babies. She would get up at all hours of the night. That was our indoctrination to the idea that parenting was a 24/7 job.

Later, when the kids were a little older we would take turns looking after their needs. We noticed that with children, everything is immediate. Everything is really good or really drastic in the now. Their vision and patience into the future doesn't exist.

Then we arrived at a time where they were a little self reliant. That was the time when we had to make decisions to do things with them or let them go out and get into whatever all the other kids were doing.

What with drugs about, we decided we wanted to be with our kids, play with them, know how they were, what they were doing. We didn't want that because we owned them. We wanted to have fun with them at every stage of their life.

So we played, day and night with our kids. What they wanted to do we wanted to do. What a wonderful reward kids are. We had a great time with our kids, but then we were enthusiastic parents.

We got through the teens, when the kids are no longer little boys or little girls, and neither are they adults. When I look on parents today going through those years, I wonder how it was that we made it successfully. Yet I see that the more parents are involved with their kids the better the kids do in school, in life, socially and emotionally. Strange as it seems it appears too, that the busier a youngster is in sports, music, clubs, the better they do in school.

I've seen, too, the parent who does nothing. They don't want to be bothered by a child, so they give them some money and tell them to go to the store. As these kids grow to be teens these are the ones who head into trouble.

Parenting is a never ending job, and 24/7 for the rest of your life. I recommend making it fun. Parenting can be a joy when you practice - - -

Enthusiastic Parenting

©2004

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