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Posts Tagged ‘family’

I guess every family gets to this point at sometime in their family’s life cycle. Our kids are starting to sound like us, the parents. Let me explain.

Tonight, we went to my son’s Court of Honor where he earned 9 merit badges. We were all very proud of his accomplishment. He has now earned enough badges to advance to the rank of “Star“. Most of these Merit Badges came from his work up at Scout Camp (Camp Bradley to be specific). Although we are very excited about his progress, our discussions with friends in our lds ward was that our kids are starting to sound like us on the phone. One friend commented that when she would get on the phone, then immediately think they are talking to me or my wife and just rattle on about the events of the day and then notice that there isn’t an immediate response. The sheepish reply was, “I’ll get my Mom for you, just a sec.” Of course, the caller is embarrassed to have just assumed that they were talking to Deanna.

I guess everyone reaches that point, but I guess it has just become more and more noticeable these last few week. I guess our kids are growing up and now are starting to sound like us, for better or for worse.

Every year our schools have an “open house” before school starts. This is a time when parents take their kids to the school to meet their teachers, choose a desk and put their school supplies away in preparation for school to start. Each year, I gather my kids together and tell them to dress in their nice clothes for the event. Every year I get the same moaning and complaining about having to dress up. I always explain that this is the first time they will be meeting their teacher and that they need to make a good impression. My kids still don’t like the idea but reluctantly dress in their nice sunday clothes to make the trip to school. I also dress up in a suit jacket and nice slacks so that I look nice when meeting my kids’ teachers. Here is how we looked this year.

It always irritates me that more people do not take the time to look nice when they go to the school to meet their student’s teachers. As much as we don’t want to admit it, first impressions do matter. It really amazes me that people will show up to the open house in ripped jeans, tee shirts, and flip flops. My sister told me one time that whenever she goes to the school, for whatever reason, she always dresses up nice. She noticed that, even thought they shouldn’t, teachers and administrators will treat you differently if you show up in sweats vs. showing up in a suit. I don’t doubt it one minute so I have tried to follow this philosophy ever since.

Last year I wrote this blog post about the subject.

I saw this video the other day while wandering around YouTube. It is about Family Dinner. I’ve never really thought about how important family dinner can be until I saw this little video. We have been really lucky to be able to enjoy dinner together every night as a family. Being a Mormon, you know that families are very important to us. We know that the family unit is central to our way of life. Isn’t it funny that something we have been encouraged to do all of our lives actually helps keep the family together? It is nice when science validates our beliefs.

If any of you are American Idol fans, the guy in the video that is the dad, look just like the winner a couple of years ago. Taylor Hicks. Also, if you look closely, the little girl is putting frosting on the cake and actually licks the spatula and then keeps on spreading. Very funny.