Weekly Thoughts

When my son was born, he looked a lot like me.  Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about my weaknesses through identifying his weaknesses and realizing that I have many of the same ones.  Obviously, since I put my kids first I try to correct his issues by helping him realize what they are and try to conquer them together.

So far my success rate has been near zero.  Oh, he’ll change for a month, but then reverts back to the same old mistakes.  Perhaps I’m expecting too much from an eleven year old, after all his teachers and other adults really seem to like him.  When he was in the fifth grade, the principal of the school actually sought us out at a school function and shook my hand telling me what a great kid we have.  That was an odd moment for me!  I couldn’t even tell you if my fifth grade principal when I was in school was a male or female (most likely a male though).  I obviously didn’t know my principal’s name…  But it’s different with my kids, a big part of where we decided to live was based on the school system’s quality, so things are a bit different for my kids growing up.

Back to my problems with my son:

I’ll identify his weaknesses and try to help him overcome them with ideas, but he just get mad, sassy, or gives up angrily.

I know that the shows he watches always has the dad and mom identified as idiots.  Since kids really don’t know any better, I would guess that he has watched enough shows (over and over and over again), that portray parents as a source that aren’t reliable or trustworthy source (thanks TV writer folks).

My problem:

My problem is I’m not a patience man, and I’m getting tired of this repeating performance.  I’m about ready to give up on trying to help him improve and just let him be what he is, problems and all.  My initial thought was I’d give him a leg up on things by helping him conquer the issues I know of and have conquered, but since he doesn’t respect me, I guess he will have to figure it out years later.  What a time waste…   Oh Well…

Now on to more positive things, my parenting rant is done:

Weekly reads from other bloggers:

• Budgeting In the Fun Stuff:  Making More than My Husband and WE are Loving It!
• Everyday Tips And Thoughts:  Advice For Students: Don’t Be Afraid To Dream
• 101 Centavos:  Gold Bubbles and Gold Stocks
• Cash Flow Mantra:  My Thoughts on Investing in Gold and Silver
• Free From Broke:  Should You Start Your Own Business?
• Money Cone:  Following Buffett Blindly Can Be Injurious To Your Wealth
• Wealth Informatics:  Are we saving too much for retirement?
• Bucksome Boomer:  If You Don’t Have Money, I’d Better Not Find These Things In Your House
• Buck Inspired:  Lottery: Is It Really A Stupid Tax?
• Financial Samurai:  Are There Really People Who Only Work 40 Hours A Week Or Less?
• Jin6655321:  At Least I Have a Job to Be Late To
• Financial Success For Young Adults:  Junk in the Truck a.k.a. Growing Your Assets

Conclusion, back to my parenting rant!

I love my son, but now I’m kind of worried about when he hits his teenage years.  I envisioned my son and I having a great relationship and playing golf together, but now I’m not so sure.  Perhaps he is taking my help as criticism, and instead of helping him, he is just getting angry at me.  As a dad I feel it’s my duty to help him improve, but it’s not working out.  Time to think and come up with an alternative plan…

Either way, something need to be done because the path that we are on isn’t one that gets us to a beneficial location.

Hope you had a better week than I did!

MR