Life

Your time, support and listening are the greatest gifts you will ever give a child. This is something I learned from my parents.  

Grandma Still Makes Time to Listen

While watching a movie the other night about a divorced family and I got thinking - how I would feel if I did not have my mother and father to count on for direction, strength and support when I was growing-up.  I can't image.  No, it was not easy. I was the oldest and my father was a bit of a Victorian father during the 60's and 70's.  He did not feel his daughters needed to go to a college out-of-state because, "we would just be getting married." His son could go to the university of his choosing since he would eventually be the bread winner. I could not go steady at 14, he was waiting up for me when I would come home from a dates and would flash the front porch lights so I would come in. God forbid the neighbors would see me in the car kissing anyone. Still he always made sure that all my "dreams came true." My mom was the sweet voice of reason that held our lives and the family on course and together. All 4 of us and with a 10 year spread.  Can you image from a 17 year old all the way down to a 7 year old?  How did she balance that? To this day she is a wonderful mediator and still holding us together.

What it must be like to grow up today. Over 60 % of the families in America are split once if not twice.These young people usually lack a positive male role model and sometimes a female one.Their BFF (best favorite friend) appears to be their cell iPhone or android which is with them like a "binky" at all times. They have half-sisters, step-brothers and maybe a full blooded sibling they rarely see because one sibling went with one parent and the other sibling went with the other parent.  

Drugs are being sold to them on buses from the time they start the second grade. They watch their parents smoke pot and take pills at home, but are told they should not do the same. Television, wii, and x-box are the only things talking in the house during dinner, and dinner is usually either whatever the children can find because the single-parent is working a late shift or what the "staff" has be instructed to put out, since the parents will not be home until late - as usual.

The family tapestry in America may be unraveling; this cannot be denied, but the threads are still present if we will only put our iPhone's and androids down, turn off the televisions, and ipads and look up across the table. Talk to your children and then more importantly listen. Whether they be your niece, nephew, young cousin, grandchild or your very own child - give.

Your time, support and listening are the greatest gifts you will ever give a child.