Your Thoughts on Kids & Parenting

1) Do you want to be a parent someday? Why/why not?

I have two kids 12 and 15, boy first, then the girl.

2) If you already are, was it planned, or did it kind of just happen?
Planned down to their birth signs! One's a cancer, the other a taurus.
3) What are/will be some of the most important values & morals you want to teach your children?
Giving my kids a religious foundation. Kids that don't believe in a higher power scare the crap out of me... Teaching them to be mindful of others before themselves...teaching them to think about actions and consequences...To think for themselves...

4) How many children do you want to have?
Two is perfect, but babies smell so good and their warm skin makes me yearn occasionally for another. Glad my tubes were tied!

5) How will you look upon the responsibilty of raising your children? An adventure? A duty?
Duty. This is my main job! I work now, but not until the kids were in school. They need the consistency of adult supervision, love, and interest even now...I have had some mighty adventures on the job though!

6) If you already have grown children, if given the chance, would you go back and do it all over again just for the hell of it?
They have turned out to be wonderful people so far, so, no.

7) Have you always felt the same way about this subject, or did your feelings change at some point in your life? If so, how/why?
I had always wanted children. Babysat, volunteered at the YMCA, worked as an aide in the schools, read books to kids at the library. That's why I went into teaching also. I like most kids.

8) What would/did you most look forward to when you have/had your own children? What do you least look foward to?
I like the fact that I can see them developing into the adults they're going to be. It's exciting! I didn't like the dependence they had on me when they were little. So needy, sometimes I felt sucked dry by them. Every year gets a little better, more vocabulary, less dependence.

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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

Johann von Goethe

hmm...
umm... why?

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letterboxd

1) Do you want to be a parent someday? Why/why not?
I am and as far as I can remember I always wanted to be a father. I have five teenagers 14,15,16,18,19 (the 14 and 18 year olds are stepchildren, but I have raised them and I think of them as my own).



2) If you already are, was it planned, or did it kind of just happen?
All my children were planned, even the step kids. Well I did not plan them but I knew when I was going to spend my life with my new spouse that they came along. I could not be luckier.


3) What are/will be some of the most important values & morals you want to teach your children?
Respect yourself and others.


4) How many children do you want to have?
Im done..

5) How will you look upon the responsibilty of raising your children? An adventure? A duty?
Well being a parent is a duty, but definitly an adventure also. I look at it more as a blessing that I should be grateful for which I am.


6) If you already have grown children, if given the chance, would you go back and do it all over again just for the hell of it?
Sure, but with a grandchild already here and living at home, I do get to do it again.


7) Have you always felt the same way about this subject, or did your feelings change at some point in your life? If so, how/why?
Always felt the same really. It was tough at first intergrating two familes into one, and the road can still be bumpy, but family is the most important thing to me.

8) What would/did you most look forward to when you have/had your own children? What do you least look foward to?
I looked forward to everything, from the dirty diapers to the acne to the bad/good grades, etc... Each day with my children, from the elation I felt at their birth and to the glee I experienced when my son graduated, I would have missed none of it. The least thing I look forward to is when they move away, but at the same time I will be happy to get more room around the house.


In closing I would like to say that life can be tough sometimes and even more so when one of your children suffers for any reason. My cousin is losing her 6 year old son to cancer and although she seems to have acceoted it, I know there could be nothing worse for a parent to experience. I find that sometimes I am too laid back as a parent, and being a grandfather at 39 is indicative of that, but my family is my life and nothing will ever change that.

My five children: Debi, Kristina, Joshua, Kari, and Donie

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

7thson...your kids are absolutely gorgeous, every last one of them, and thank you for sharing.

Kids should never parent, it's downright silly!

Parents are allowed to kid though, my parents kidded me for years that i was good looking

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"You two are the two that are the two, I am the other one"

1) Do you want to be a parent someday? Why/why not?
Already am

2) If you already are, was it planned, or did it kind of just happen?
A little of both. We were married for 6 years before we had kids but it was still a bit of a surprise. More for her than me if you can follow that drift.

3) What are/will be some of the most important values & morals you want to teach your children?
I'll come back to this one. I'm too tired to preach today.

4) How many children do you want to have?
2. I'm done.

5) How will you look upon the responsibilty of raising your children? An adventure? A duty?
It's always an adventure. I wouldn't trade it for the world either.

6) If you already have grown children, if given the chance, would you go back and do it all over again just for the hell of it?
I'd have to stock up on the energy drinks, but maybe.

7) Have you always felt the same way about this subject, or did your feelings change at some point in your life? If so, how/why?
I always knew I'd be a great dad!

8) What would/did you most look forward to when you have/had your own children? What do you least look foward to?
I had ideas, but until you have kids you just don't know. That's the best I can do. Personally, I was idealistic and unrealistic in some of my expectations and some other things turned out better than I'd ever hoped for. Vague enough?

I have 5 kids every few years the pubertiy thing starts, its a nightmare, my advice is show them 24 and then put a gun to their head, for what its worth.

Past remarks aside:
I would have to say that being a (good) parent is tougher than anything else in this world. Seriously it is; because like our own lives our children have their own thoughts, their own beliefs, their own rebellious thoughts, their own ideals and goals, etc... How is one, as a parent, to know our own child’s convictions? Simple, we cannot. The best we can do is be there when they need us and support them in every way we can without judging too harshly, after all we (parents) grew up in a different era, did we not? All I am saying is that a little understanding and a lot of love goes a long way. Saying that…if my child tries to smoke some crack they would get a butt whooping, but only cause I love them.