DocAndersen
Keeping kids active is always something parents do, I guess it is the reality of parenting. Sometimes, parents get far too involved, and we call them helicopter parents. Sometimes they are disengaged so much we call them nanny parents (as in, the nanny knows your kids better than you do). Parenting at best is a hard job. There are no thank yous often. There is a ton of blame. Everything that happens is your fault. As a child, I used to love the old sign they had in Kinko’s. It made me laugh then because the second half wasn’t true. It makes me laugh now because not only is the first part, not something parents can fix, but it does point to the fact that there is always two sides of blame in every relationship.
- When I was five, my parents were ten feet tall
- When Iw as ten years old I thought my parents were cool.
- When I was thirteen, I wondered if my parents knew anything.
- When I was seventeen, I wondered how my parents. As incompetent as they were, kept jobs.
- When I was twenty one I realized my parents were misguided, not stupid.
- When I was twenty-five, I realized my parents weren’t that bad.
- When I was thirty, I found myself wondering what my parents thought about things.
- When I was forty, I asked my parents what they thought.
The funny thing about kids is that as they mature, all of them cycle through this. Some of them get stuck in one or another for many years. But eventually, they make it through. I know, I got stuck in a couple for many more years than the Kinko’s sign said I should. I know many people that haven’t moved out of one of the stages. I hope they do, someday.
Kids do what kids do. In the old days, we did try to keep them really busy. Tired kids take naps.
