If I Knew I’d Be Hit With a Meteor Tomorrow…

The smartest piece of advice I ever heard was second-hand from a grandmother. A woman I knew was getting her kids off to school, totally exhausted. The next-door neighbor, a grandmother, was watching her. When the kids all headed off, the mother shook her head and sighed “parenting is HARD.”

The older woman smiled. “Parenting isn’t hard,” she said. “Its just DAILY.”

That’s it. You have to be there, take the heat, hold the hands, dry the tears. Love them so hard their emotional gas tanks are full for a lifetime of struggle.

Daily.

Jason returns from camp today, and I’m hoping he had a GREAT time. Summer is almost 2/3 over now, and if he had a wonderful time I can anchor those emotions and teach him to “trigger” them on demand. It will give me the momentum I need to move him forward to his senior year.

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I was asked yesterday if I would teach my son that he can accomplish anything he dreams of. More specifically, if I BELIEVE that.

That’s a tricky question. In once sense, no. In another, yes. A person can have a dream that is very specific, on an unrealistic deadline, and aren’t willing or able to take the steps necessary to accomplish it.

But…I think that the potential “downside” of following your dreams are HUGELY more palatable than the “downside” of talking yourself out of doing something that makes your heart happy. Some thoughts on the difference.