Select Page

Watching other Parents (No judgement)

Jul 25, 2018

Do you ever learn from the parenting of others?

I wrote this post originally in 2014, and I never posted it. I just love the final paragraph, and I wanted to share it with the world.

finger family fun!

Sometimes I compare myself to other parents and I wonder if I sound like they do to my kids? If I do, and the manner in which I am seeing the parenting is not to my standards of expectation, I need to take a breathe and perhaps concentrate on what is important. Today is important. That's all. What I teach my kids today will likely stay with them for a long time, as I have noticed in the way that they continually bring up stuff that I say to them.
So for me my 5 most important things, or my priorities are:
  1.  my health- fitness
  2.  my family/friends
  3.  learning and growing
  4.  giving to my audience, helping them with what they need
  5.  contributing to my communities. Firefighting, and FRF, 100 Men Who give a Damn
  6. leave a legacy
I try to reflect on these priorities once per day to be sure that I am living true to my values. If there is something that doesn't fit into my priorities, or something that will not matter to me or my family in 5 years time, then I do not give it any time. My criteria is specific in that it checks with whats important today, and what I hope to build in the future. Do you do that too?
So when I am not happy with the way that the kids are acting, I need to step back and look over my priorities to see if I am being honest with myself.
What are my kids teaching me?
What are my clients teaching me that I could be teaching others?
There is a line from the movie "Robots" that I think applies here: A dream that you don't fight for can haunt you for the rest of your life.  Don't let your dream of your legacy, and enriched family life haunt you later in your life.
Act today to make your future better!