How I raised two boys to adulthood
Someone once told me true parenting success was twenty years down the road. If none of your kids were dead due to their own actions, or in jail, you’d succeeded. That’s pretty narrow and there are an awful lot of variables involved. But I made it! Here I am, with two children over twenty-six years old, and no jail time either . . .well, there was that one time my son got arrested for possessing implements of tagging- but I believe his story. It sounds totally in character- a local tagger had painted obscenities on a bridge near his apartment and he talked a friend into helping him cover the offending graffiti up. Only problem was, THEY got caught.
Both of my sons are healthy and alive. Although there was that time I got a notice from the insurance company that my son’s emergency room visit (which I was unaware of) had been paid for, including the stitches. Good news, that. The really good news was that, when confronted with the information that I knew about his head injury, he told me he’d already decided to give up long boarding in a hill town with roads only slightly less steep than those in San Francisco.
They are very different and have chosen very different paths in life. But we are proud of both of them- look at them, out there, paying their bills while following their dreams! Fine job of adulting, young men!
How did I do it? Prayer, studying the principles of parenting, looking for mentors, prayer, trying to think through the possible results of each decision, prayer, making decisions on the spur of the moment, more prayer . . . oh, let’s be honest. I raised two boys to adulthood only by the grace of God!