I know as adults we have responsibilities and obligations, and I know as adults it's our jobs to teach children to be responsible. I get that. Believe me I really do. But we also need to not take life so seriously.
I want to raise responsible, hard working kids. It is important to me but I don't think it's anymore important to me than teaching my kids to live life to love it. We're all given the chance to live life but it's our choice to love it.
We choose every day how to live our lives. As I was looking back tonight at pictures from my childhood I was struck with even though in some ways I live my life differently than my parents did for no other reason sometimes than it's a different time and we're all different people, but I realized my parents taught me to love life. Such a simple but fundamental thing I think.
I think growing up I thought everyone lived their life the way we did. I thought everyone's parents loved each other's company like my parents, spent time with their kids playing ball or on evening walks. I thought everyone's parents spent road trips singing to Alabama as loud as they could. I thought everyone ended almost every night around the dinner table telling dirty jokes, laughing about the day, or retelling highlights from the latest game.
My parents worked hard, they had their struggles, ones I really knew little about because they chose to focus on the good more so than the bad, but they lived a life they fell in love with. On my wedding card my mom wrote, "I hope you have a life together as wonderful as ours has been."
As I made way out of their sheltered embrace I came to see the true gift my sisters and I were given in our childhood. They lead so much by example. They made us work for what we wanted; they raised three very independent, pretty responsible, successful daughters. But along with the values of work ethic and responsibility was to live life to love it. To spend time with the people you love, to do things that make your heart happy, to laugh often, to not take yourself or life too seriously.
Even though I have my rough, down days like everyone else, I have a life I fall more in love with every day. As the years add up and I look back on my adolescent years, my college years, my young adult years, and now my parenthood and early marriage years I smile at all the wonderful memories that are a part of my life story. It's our choice to live life to hate it or to live it to love it. My parents were my teachers that taught me to love it and hopefully I can be as great as them one day in teaching my children to live life to love it. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for teaching me how to live and love. You taught me a lot but this is probably the most important thing.
My parents at a high school softball tournament
True Love still going strong 34 years later
A little family friendly driveway basketball
Dad
Mom with road trip rally cap
Dad shoved her in the pond in her nice clothes
I want to raise responsible, hard working kids. It is important to me but I don't think it's anymore important to me than teaching my kids to live life to love it. We're all given the chance to live life but it's our choice to love it.
We choose every day how to live our lives. As I was looking back tonight at pictures from my childhood I was struck with even though in some ways I live my life differently than my parents did for no other reason sometimes than it's a different time and we're all different people, but I realized my parents taught me to love life. Such a simple but fundamental thing I think.
I think growing up I thought everyone lived their life the way we did. I thought everyone's parents loved each other's company like my parents, spent time with their kids playing ball or on evening walks. I thought everyone's parents spent road trips singing to Alabama as loud as they could. I thought everyone ended almost every night around the dinner table telling dirty jokes, laughing about the day, or retelling highlights from the latest game.
My parents worked hard, they had their struggles, ones I really knew little about because they chose to focus on the good more so than the bad, but they lived a life they fell in love with. On my wedding card my mom wrote, "I hope you have a life together as wonderful as ours has been."
As I made way out of their sheltered embrace I came to see the true gift my sisters and I were given in our childhood. They lead so much by example. They made us work for what we wanted; they raised three very independent, pretty responsible, successful daughters. But along with the values of work ethic and responsibility was to live life to love it. To spend time with the people you love, to do things that make your heart happy, to laugh often, to not take yourself or life too seriously.
Even though I have my rough, down days like everyone else, I have a life I fall more in love with every day. As the years add up and I look back on my adolescent years, my college years, my young adult years, and now my parenthood and early marriage years I smile at all the wonderful memories that are a part of my life story. It's our choice to live life to hate it or to live it to love it. My parents were my teachers that taught me to love it and hopefully I can be as great as them one day in teaching my children to live life to love it. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for teaching me how to live and love. You taught me a lot but this is probably the most important thing.
My parents at a high school softball tournament
True Love still going strong 34 years later
It sounds like your parents were true role models for you. I'm glad that you had this experience and recognize it enough to pass on to your own children.
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