Kids

[Klause]

OK not marketing related...


Has raising kids gotten harder? My wife and I are getting to the point where kids are a possibility... raising children in an age of anything goes and drugs everywhere terrifies me.

Darcy teaches kids to ride horses... she's got 4h clubs she tutors and often I'll go along and assist... the attitudes of children and parents these days (and there are exceptions of course) is pretty much toxic.


Anyway figured I'd post here as lots of you are family men and gone thru it once or twice or more times with kids and grandkids...

[JDGreen]

Kids are a product of their environment. End of story....

[blackpowder]

Gee, had big speech ready and jdgreen said %90 of it.

You sound very sensible and capable. And like every future parent in history. Its a part of life get the hell going.

My preteen boy doesnt live with me. He sees physcologists and takes a pill. I just spent all day yesterday with a suicidal 19 year old. (Not mine).

Children are natures greatest gift and no matter where the journey ends one I will never regret. You will learn the wisdom of Solomon and become a better person.
Sorry. End of sermon.

[food4u]

JD Green is 100% right. Three children of our own raised, two grand children in adulthood, one grand child almost there( grade 12), one grand child still in school and now we become grand parents to a step grand child this summer.What a wonderful life. Family is everything to us..

[Partners]

kids usually turn out the way the parents raise them.
Teach them your values..They will learn, but make there own decisions when they leave home..
Try to be their Best Friend..not just a iron fist parent..
Our girls were moved out June 30th of the yr they graduated..Told them your next part of life starts now..
At the time is sounded mean..but they both got jobs right away and learned how to manage money in short order..
Today they are both very successful, both live in Humboldt..with Good jobs..
And they are still our Best Friends..Tell us things parents don't need to hear..
One Grand daughter so far..and yes..her mother is teaching her the same way we taught her..

[bgmb]

Klause, It seems like parents are taking a more hands on approach to raising their children all the time. To the point where some never allow them to fail have endless praise. Other problem is electronics, some allow self feed on the screens not good. Yes it is different than 30 yrs ago and 30 yrs ago was different than 60 years ago. I can promise you one thing you wont regret having kids.

[sumdumguy]

There is way to quantify the joys kids bring. We have 3 terrific grown sons who have brought awesome daughtrs in laws into the family. They are hard-working and teaching their young ones just like we taught them. It was easy to rise kids on a farm or a rural farming community as there weren't any drugs nor crime in a community of 300. Nuttin better than young and grand young buddies in our world!

[sumdumguy]

Sorry, that's NO way to quantify

[foragefarmer]

Don't spoil them, even when their babies, if their clean and have been fed, don't pick them up if they cry over nothing. Babies will realize very quickly that if they cry and are picked up right away, they'll do it all the time. Then you can forget about getting any sleep!!

The other thing that we always told our children even at an early age was that there is only one way to get ahead in life, and that's hard honest work. There is no free ride. This applies to school, university and a career. It sure paid off for us as parents.

Oh ya it takes two parents at all times to get the job done right!

[farmaholic]

Good luck with your decision Klause and Klausette.
Doesn't always "just happen" for everyone. ...but hopefully you've been "practising"! ;-)

A scourge today is online gaming....just another addiction for some when no limitations are imposed. Hopefully that fad is gone by the time your young ones are older.

I've seen the results of broken homes...not pretty when the "adults" aren't on the same page, or even in the same ****ing book for that matter.

Make them accountable for their actions, don't enable, encourage education (can't make them though)...

Jd...really said it well in a nut shell.

One thing for sure is they're all different...raised in the same home with the same sets of rules....funny how that works!

[makar]

When we had my twin boys i gave up the oilfield and stayed home when the wife was working, bottom line they dont know being raised by strangers, one of us was almost always with them. Yes the farm suffered at times but i dont regret it. If you are lucky and the wife can stay home what a blessing. The little things you cant imagine are so important, like losing ten minutes at seeding because your son looked at the tractor and asked how hydraulics work.

[ajl]

Hard honest work used to be the way to get ahead. Today it takes cronyism and lobbying as the economy is no longer governed by free enterprise and hasn't been for a while.

[makar]

I thought klause was asking about raising kids, not politicians.

[farmaholic]

Lol....re daycare: when the kids come home sounding and acting like the daycare caregivers because they spend most of their waking hours with them instead of their parents.....

Oh ya....and let the little bastards fail or fall flat on their faces, prepare them for the real world. Real life doesn't hand out participation ribbons or trophies. Teach them to stand back up, dust themselves off, and try again. What's the old saying? Quitters never win and winners never quit.

[tweaker101]

I couldt agree with you more Makar, we were lucky as my wife works in the school system and has summers off( awesome when haying...She bales by the way and is the best operator we have..lol) time spent with a parent vs a paid care giver ie daycare etc is by far the best. We encouraged our kids to try anything that interested them... figure skating, soccer, baseball, foot ball and 4H(I did push for that...and yes my kids can both speak infront of a group of people without having the deer in the headlights look).

Both of our kids kept busy with sports and they both had jobs to provide them with a little spending money even if it cost me more than they made in gas to get them to there jobs... As far as drugs went Klause it was not a problem and I firmly belive that children will behave just like the environment that they live in.

My ownly regeret is that I work a lot and did miss out on some stuff but as I get older I am learning to say no to work and be with my family more....it seems that they go from 1 to 18 in a blink of a eye.