Source
Every now and then I recapitulate the past time, this can be years, months or even days. Often with the purpose of self-reflection.

One of the things I have thought about a lot is if I (or we, my wife and I) are raising our kids the proper way. That is if there is a proper way of course. I remember having discussions with friends or family about this subject. Because it is very personal and individual. What seems right for one person doesn't have to be for a other so it is indeed personal and depending on the morals and values of the parent.

Don't judge to quick

If there is something I do have learned the hard way (yep, I have had my troubles) is that you never must judge people by the way they handle things or what they do. You never know the background of the action or behaviour and it doesn't have to be with bad intentions neither. So sort of speak "Who am I to judge you" .

Raising kids

When my wife was pregnant with our first one I never took a moment to think about how to raise a kid. I thought things will go their own way and it is a natural thing of human beings which turn out organic.... But during our journey with (eventually) two kids I did notice that it isnot that natural, that choices that you make as a parent will affect your kids sooner or later. And with that in mind the weight on parenting is harder in a blink.....

I remember in the beginning reflecting to others, friends with kids and how they managed and raised them compared to how we did it, I guess it was me being insecure about my own capabilities.

I didn't had the best childhood myself and therefore I had the intention of doing the opposite for my kids because (like any parent I guess) wanted the best for them both. And looking back to all those years (13 and 15) I think we did quite well.

For us there are some important things in life:

- Respect

- Honesty

- Creating oppertunities

- Carring for more than yourself

- Enjoying time together

Respect

I think it is very important to teach childeren to have respect for eachother, for others and of course for parents. Although I think you will get respect if you treat your kids the same way.

Honesty

Honesty is something I value very high. Without honesty there is no respect. It sounds so obvious and maybe a bit heavy, but that is something which is a high priority for me.

Creating oppertunities

I have learned, like many people, that nothing is comming towards you automatically. You do have to take oppertunities to reach your goals or even to get to (if desired) a better situation. Hard work does pay...

Carring for more than yourself

I think it is very important for kids to know (the same goes for adults of course), that there is more outside of their 'bubble' then just their own things. Care for others, be genuine to others. For instance the difference between our two boys, the younest really cares for everybody. Whenever there is a kid at school who doesn't get along with the majority because he or she is different, our son is always making friends with them. As he says "How do other kids know if someone is nice or not just by the way they look?" and that's exactly my point, you don't.... Care for others little effort much joy...

Enjoying time together

If there is something I have learned, time is to precious to waste it and kids are growing up way to fast.
For me it is very important to spend time together with my kids (and wife of course). I want them to be able to say "I had some great times with my parents" , that's something I never had when I was a kid. Eventually I turned out fine but can't look back on a great youth. That's also a thing I discuss with my kids, not to point them on how lucky they are but more to convince them about the importancy of spending quality time together. And I think it works because they really enjoying spending time with us, I notice that in everything. The way they communicate, open and freely, the little things they still hug and cuddle every now and then....

It's cliche as often said "Raising kids isn't easy" , it is true I guess but it also depends how you deal with it, how you involve your kids in the morals and values you want to teach them in terms of explaining and why you live by them.

Source

Nevertheless, I am proud to be their dad and to see how the manage....And a little proud at us as parents to see that what we wanted to achieve, great, respectfull, carring and honest guys, we achieved..please let me think we did lol....

Have a great day

---

Proud member of SMG

---

I fully support @s3rg3 and @exyle, who are witness with their developer group @blockbrothers for the Steem blockchain. If you want to support them, they would appreciate your vote here.


They are the creators of Steemify, THE notification app for your Steemit account for IOS.

---