A dad's point of view - my little boy is going to college

I hate clichés. I love clichés. I just find it weird when I feel as if my whole life is one big cliché! Being a parent means you will undoubtedly experience any number of them. Here’s an arbitrary list of parenting clichés. Be honest, how many have you used?

• Like father, like son
  
• The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
  
• There are starving children in Africa
  
• Money doesn't grow on trees
  
• I’ll start treating you like an adult when you start acting like one
  
• When you have children of your own, you'll understand
  
• If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times
  
• Because I said so!
  
• Wait until your father (or mother) gets home
  
• When I was your age
  
• If God had wanted you to have holes in your ears (eyebrows, tongue, etc.) He would have put them there!
  
• Life isn't fair (this one is universal to parents and kids)
  
• When I was your age, I had to walk ten miles through the snow, uphill, by myself, to go to school

Daddy's Rules for Dating Daughters

Rule One
If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a carton of beer, because you're sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two
You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.

Rule Three

A dad's point of view - teens and the value of money

For this dad, the #OWS (Occupy Wall Street) protests are a lot of hooey with no message, no cohesiveness, and a lot of mess and disorderly conduct. For this man, it’s a bunch of lazy, spoiled kids looking for an excuse to party. For this radio host, it’s another excuse for MSM (Main Stream Media) to provide yet another skewed view of the news. It is also yet another demonstration of the diminution of the value of hard work and money.

While I don’t intend to dwell on the idiocy of the “Occupy” movement, or dwell on the irony of these pampered kids texting on the smart phones their parents got them, or the organizational skills they’ve demonstrated via their bathroom habits, I can’t help but enjoy the irony of their freedom to “Occupy” on their parent’s dime! Yes, that was the longest sentence I’ve ever written, but my passions are clearly ignited by the nonsense going on in downtowns across the country and those spreading across the world.

A dad's point of view - interview with Brittney

I met Brittney (a pseudonym), an 18-year-old young girl, on the chairlift on May 31, 2011 at Mammoth Mountain. She wasn’t wearing a helmet and I gave her my usual helmet lecture (see “Parental Hypocrisy” column). She ended up sharing a bit of her story with me. She was living on her own, supporting herself, homeschooling herself, learning to snowboard, and planning on working all summer - all with her parent’s permission.

Her situation was intriguing given that so many parents worry that their kids can support themselves, even after college, let alone finishing up high school without supervision. I had to know more so I invited her for coffee, expressing my sincere interest in her story. Following are excerpts, in her own words and vernacular, from my interview with Brittney. Please note that this interview rambles:

A dad's point of view - my teenager drives

I put off enabling my son to drive for as long as I could, but he passed the driver’s test on his third try and succeeded in getting his grades up to our agreed-upon level. I couldn’t delay it any longer. He now drives. As a native Southern Californian, I grew up in a car culture and time when we got our licenses literally on the day of our 16th birthday, or the Monday after, if our luck was really bad.

Thankfully, it isn’t that easy anymore. Driving, in this dad’s humble opinion, is wrought with more dangers than ever, though the cars may have more safety features than ever. Safety features, however, don’t fully account for foolish choices, increased traffic, and drunk drivers. Nor do “safety features” account for the sad reality, again in my opinion, that young men and women are not maturing as quickly as we did. I think kids today are spoiled, allowed to remain kids much longer, and may just not be ready to drive at the tender age of 16.

Parents aren't any better

This is currently doing the rounds on email - parents absentee messages. Let's not be too harsh on our little ones with spelling mistakes and all ... turns out parents aren't any better at writing :-) The following is a collection of absentee messages from schools around the world.

(don't know who to credit this for - just got it by email)

My son is under a doctors care and should not take PE. Please execute him.

Please excuse Promise for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.

Dear School: Please excuse Sipho being absent on Juneuary 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and also 33.

Please excuse Glorious from Jim today. She is administrating.

Please excuse Blessing for a few days from PE. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.

Edwed has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.

Moses was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.

Competition for college students

If you've got a teen aspiring to be a famous blogger or writer check out the monthly competitions at Stageoflife.com.

They run a free national writing contest for college students on various topics like the Gulf Oil Spill, America's relationship to food, education improvement, etc. The writing competition is a non-fiction, memoir, blogging, diary, letter, or essay-style contest for any college student.

Visit Stageoflife.com for more information

Enjoy,

Stef

It gets better

Very cool project to inspire children and help kids who are being bullied or feel suicidal - the Trevor Project and "it gets better" check it out at itgetsbetter.org. Check it out:

Share with your kids and other parents!

Enjoy,

Stef

Children's allowances - when to give and when not

By Andrew Lendnal

Do you consider giving your children pocket money or an allowance essential? Is it bribery to ensure basic chores get done, or does it teach them budgeting, saving and basic money management skills? In truth, it’s probably a bit of both, and I don’t think either is a bad thing.

Children watch and learn all the time, so start as soon as you can to model these money skills. Let children handle money and use the language of money when talking to them about shopping, or even a trip to the cash machine. In these days of credit cards, eftpos and internet banking, children rarely see money going out. But it comes in via ATMs, and of course eftpos cash-out – they could easily think you go shopping and get paid to do it!

Teaching Kids Eco-friendliness in the Yard

Teaching kids about why being eco-friendly is important can be fun and the perfect setting for such an experience is right in the back yard. There dads and children can find a good spot, dig a hole, and explore the inner workings of a miniature underground eco-system.

It's a different view than just recycling and lends an eye to some of
what we are trying to protect.

So how can dads bridge the gap between having fun and conveying this
message? One way is to tell a story about soil, the brown looking
firmament, which is everywhere.

It seems dirty but in a strange natural kind of way is actuality very clean. Rich in nutrients, it helps vegetation grow so people can have food to eat, resources to build with, and beauty to take in. Furthermore, the earth is a cleanser and filters pollutants out of rain water and other moisture before reaching aquifers.