Things I’ve Learned from My Children
Shortly after I learned that I was going to have my first child, I was talking to a lady at work about what was in store for my future. She, having two of her own children, told me my life was about to change. I didn’t believe her. The fact that I thought life would go on as usual after having a child, by itself is probably funny enough to win a humorous speech contest, but if I stopped now I’d get disqualified for not fulfilling the time limit…so I’ll go on.
As much as my wife and I tried to fight it, life DID change after we had our first child. And then it changed a bit more when we had our next one. And a bit more every child after that. I think we have about 16 kids now…I lost count. Needless to say, life has changed a lot since I first got married.
One thing that I have learned about change is that just because something is different, doesn’t mean it is bad. And despite the endless diaper changes, the living off of short naps during the night rather than a good night’s rest, and the constant bombardment of toys being launched down the stairs by my legion of knee high protector’s of the universe, I find my children to be quite delightful and stimulating. In fact, I have learned a lot from them…hence the title of my speech, “Things I’ve Learned from My Kids.” What are those “things” you say? I thought you’d never ask. Let me tell you…
They are, in no particular order:
#1: Think outside of the box – or better yet…don’t even have a box...but if you have to have one, make it your own box.
This is a picture of my oldest son, Graeden. Here he is doing a little dance. A very unique dance. This is the dance he did when he went out school shopping this year in the changing room each time he would try on a new shirt. When he finished the dance he was able to tell whether or not he liked it. After a bit of prodding my wife was able to get out of him that the dance was to make sure the shirt didn’t slide off of one of his shoulders. If it could withstand the dance test, it was a good shirt, he wanted it. That was his “box”.
B: Don’t beat around the bush, say things how you see them. Here is a card one of my kids made for Mother’s day.
I let them draw what they wanted on the outside. My second child, Elliott, wrote simply, “Poo”. I guess that’s what was on his mind. Children have a way of being extremely blunt in what they say. The great thing about that is you never wonder how they “really” feel about something. The other day, I was taking a shower with this same child and I’m singing a beautiful song at nearly perfect pitch…I think it was ABC’s. My son looks up at me and says, “Dad, could you be nice?” “Sure” I reply. “Then stop singing!”…and now I know how he “really” feels about my singing.
Third: Get an education
ok, I didn’t learn that from my children, but that’s important. And this is a cute picture.
IV: Don’t let your inhibitions stop you from doing what you want to do:
Have you ever wondered why it’s only kids that run through public sprinklers? My theory is that adults would do it more often if they didn’t feel like they were being watched.
Little kids usually don’t care if they are being watched or not. They want to have a good time. They’re not worried if they are a little overweight, or if they aren’t as muscular as they wish they were. Even when they forget their swimsuit, they are perfectly fine with going in what they’ve got. Fortunately for me, I have a perfect body and don’t have to worry much about this one, but it may come in handy some day.
16: Delegate
My oldest child is four years old. And even though he is limited in his abilities and understanding of the world, he, like my other children, are generally very willing to help when they are given the opportunity. It sometimes takes a little bit of patience…and by “a little bit” I mean “a great deal” of patience, but if you teach a child to do something the payoff can often be great. Here my two year old, Jett, decided he wanted to learn to push his little brother in the stroller.
After a few walks and a few corrections of direction, he had it down pretty well. Though it wasn’t extremely easy getting to the point that we could trust him to do it just like we want (and he’s still not at that point, by the way), we can now go on walks and have an extra set of hands. Jett is empowered by the whole thing. Everybody is happy. This principle can be applied in any relationship you have with another person, from a spouse to a coworker. What’s that old saying? Teach a boy to fish and he’s busy for hours, give him a fish and he gets slime all over everything? Or something like that…which leads to the next lesson learned…
10: Cleaning Out the Fridge Doesn’t Need to be so Time Consuming
My boys did this in just a few short minutes. Oh well, according to John Tesh, “playing with food fosters creativity.” Whatever.
31: Safety First
10: Appreciate Sleep
Sometimes it can be hard to find an open bed in our house, so you just take what you can get. What I’ve really learned about sleep is how true the old adage, “early to bed, early to rise” really is. When my kids don’t go to bed early I get grumpy, and when I don’t get up early, my kids get grumpy.
Oh I could go on with many more things that I’ve learned from my kids like:
- How my ears make great handlebars, or
- How to respond to the comment, “wow, you must have your hands full,” or,
- How the best way to clean up blood stains is using cold water…
But let me tell you about what I believe to be the most important lesson I’ve learned…
10: Unconditional Love
Though my family life is far from perfect, and each of us have our bad days, at the end of the day I forgive their hair pulling, bed wetting, snotty nosed ways, and they are quick to hug me and tell me they love me.
Later this month my wife will birth another child and I can’t wait to see what changes my new daughter will bring to my life!
2 comments:
Sounds like an excellent speech. I give you first place!
Thanks. I'll let the ToastMaster's club know :o)
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