memorized…

@Jean Thank you. I hope you come back and share often.

I agree completely with everything that you said and I can see that you are very strong in your approach but you still have insecurities. That tells me that you are a good parent, period. I tend to distrust the parents who think that they have all of the answers, all of the time.

Those are the parents who are just going by rote, the automatons that I call “Microwave parents”. They seem to believe that if it was in a text book or on TV, its what is supposed to be done. Like our microwave generation - three minutes on high and the perfect balanced child should be ready. Not so in the big mean real world.

Bless your dear heart for seeing and understanding that. Your children will carry on what they’ve learnt from you and this is truly wonderful parenting. Honest, real and from the heart, not the magazine rack.

from the age of your Kay, and the age of my Kate you and I would say that we both were part of the parenting set who didn’t all meet at starbucks, take walks together or have blogs and websites to turn to -we were isolated. I felt isolated.

Your Blog will be such a great resource to so many.

Life is full of risks. You always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. At the same time I see people forcing their own egos on their children. I see our higher end students point jockeying instead of taking electives they have a general interest in. Nothing’s ever perfect but I’m glad to see parents trying to find the right balance.

@Steve You bring a different perspective of the word fail in a different context, thanks for doing that and opening the discussion further!

@Kristen We all like to stay in our comfort zone, teenagers bring you out of it, like it or not!

@Michael The part of your comment “Children don’t pay half as much attention to what we say, but to what we do.” is so true as they get older. They don’t just blindly accept what we say without our actually doing it.

@Selin I may have to ask you to borrow that quote ““The life your kids lead and the life you think they lead are two different lives.” Our culture is so fractured that the different generations are typically isolated from each other, each immersed in a different world that rarely visits (much less understands) the other.” sometime. It’s very true and very well written. Thanks for sharing.

@Vicki It’s so wonderful to have an educator’s prospective. There is so much in life we don’t know and it can be a disadvantage in life. Thanks for that interesting perspective.

@Michelle I feel this is my Divine Purpose, this site was created because I feel so passionate about raising children well. As it says on the ‘About’ page, parents fly by the seat of their pants. Hopefully we can all help each other as we raise our remarkable children.

@Jeff I am glad that you have such a great relationship with your children. You can help others see how rewarding it is when that relationship we spent years building is successfully extended into our child’s adulthood.

Thanks for creating this site and making us think about some important stuff.

It is tough moving into a world where we must fall down again after we’ve gotten past our younger childhood but that is where she’s heading!

Great job on the blog!

As a parent, your actions and the example you set is the most powerful teacher. Knowing that has made me make decisions differently, because I know I’m trying to show my children how to make life’s decisions bravely. I don’t always succeed, but I hope I do enough for them to get the message.