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Report Card
November 11, 2004 | Category: Family, It's a Trip
Just like so many before us, CD and I huddled before Bear was born and made him so many promises. Last night, I began to think about how we were doing....
(Hummed, where available in Blog-o-sonic, to the tune of 'Forever Young' by Bob Dylan.)
1. We promise that you will always be loved, that you will know love as an action we choose every day;
2. We promise that you will always know that you are part of the family (even if we embaress you into disavowing us from ages 11-18)
3. We promise that in our family, we will give, teach, and demand: respect, kindness, cooperation and sharing
4. We promise to laugh. We promise that you will hear laughter in you home as long as we live. We promise to inspire your laughter, share your laughter, and laugh at you every time you let us dress you for Halloween
5. We promise that you will always have the necessities of life
6. We promise that you will know hardship; that we will do everything we can to prepare you for it; that we will model to you the power that comes from doing what is hard and what is right
7. We promise that we will always have your back, that you will always know that there are at least two people in this world who believe in you - even when you're wrong, even when you're afraid, even when you pretend not to care
8. We promise that we will do everything we can to teach you how and when to fight for yourself - physically, vocally, emotionally, intelligently
9. We promise that we will make a path in your life to God, and that you will know there is something greater than yourself to which you are responsible
10. We promise that our goal is to grow you right out of our house. That we will be preparing you for that every moment we are lucky enough to be parenting you:
That we will teach you how to take care of your body; how to wipe; how to groom; how to tweeze; the importance of protective equipment; the addictive rush of physical exertion; the thrill of competition; the bonding that comes from of team sports; how to be a friend; how to see past the differences to the samenesses;
the value of a dollar; how to balance a checkbook; how to cook for yourself and anyone else who may come along;
how to avoid making anyone else come along until you are ready; what "ready" means;
how to buy a condom; how to buy a car; how to buy a house; how to buy a melon; how to how to budget sensibly; how to save for long-away dreams;
how bear an injustice; how not to;
how to drive a car; how to take care of your things;
how to change a fuse; how to write a research paper in a single night; how to patch drywall; how to make a paper airplane;
how to travel; how to pack lightly;
how to make a good first impression; how to get back up when you fall down; how to dress for the occcasion; how to waltz; how to iron a dress shirt;
how to have a conversation; how to forgive; how to be grateful; how to be still.
11. We promise to honor your dreams more than the ones we will have for you
12. We promise you our honesty. We promise that we will squirm and blush, but we will not hide from answering the questions you may have
13. We promise you that there will be rules; and we won't back down from our expectations that you follow them
14. We promise to read you a story
15. We promise to proudly pull out those baby pictures of you - especially the ones in the bathtub - with the least amount of provocation and whenever possible
And because RP asked: We give ourselves a B-.
We both find it harder to stay "present" to Bear that we'd thought. Sometimes we find ourselves "unplugging" from him much more than we ever thought. Oh, the guilt, the GUILT! Using the TV or letting him slip into his own world in his room or at the playground.
And we TOTALLY dropped off the list all the things we thought we'd do SOOOO well - like NOT having TV, or making all his food (From scratch! Organic!) and never letting him see the inside of a McDonalds (Yeah, right - he can tell you what kind of toy he wants in his Happy Meal *groan*) or things like crafts (Tie-Dying his clothes! With vegetable dyes we make ourselves! From things gathered on our nature walks! That we take in protest of strip mining!).
This was inspired by someone, can't remember who.... Tell me and I will credit you
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