Sacrifice, and pride.

So what's on my mind today? I dunno... let's talk about sacrifice... and pride...

The unbelievable, incredible, amazing personal sacrifices that adults must make when they have children. Most, well some, anyway, adults, when having children, come to the realization, that their life now has meaning, but has no meaning...

Confused?

Good.



Having children is absolutely the most amazing thing. You are immediately responsible for EVERYTHING this child needs... for (at least) the next 18 YEARS!!! Your life is now, like it or not, dedicated to supporting your FAMILY. You must sacrifice your time, your money, your hobbies, etc... to provide for your family. My wife + I, after having our first child, arranged our work schedules so that our kids would never have to be in a daycare situation. This has meant great personal sacrifice by both of us. We both work 10-12 hour shifts, on opposite days. This means, except for 4 days per month, we don't get to spend our days together, don't get to see each other that much. Of course, maybe this is how she's been able to tolerate me for these 16 years! Anyway, I see soooo many people who simply refuse to make that kind of personal sacrifice for their children. Lots of people will say we're lucky we can arrange our schedules like we do. Lucky? No, I don't agree... we both worked really hard to get ourselves to the positions we're in. Anyway, I hear lot's of people say they had to quit work to take care of their kids, and I respect them greatly for making such a tough decision. What I don't respect is those same people pissing + moaning about their financial situations. If you need to earn more cash, one of you can work days, the other nights, or you can work opposite days... or if you don't care who raises your children, you can send them to a stranger while you work...

Oooohhh! Harsh huh? Well, is it not the truth? If your child spends 8 hours a day with strangers, and sleeps 12 hours at night while your home with them... you tell me who's raising them. I know lots of people who even send their kids to daycare when they're NOT working... they just need some “time to themselves”... oh PLEASE!!! Grow up... you had time to yourselves before you had kids... and if you didn't, boo fucking hoo... you're not important anymore, you need to be there for your kids as much as you physically possibly can. Send the kids to daycare to go shopping... send the kids to daycare to go to the dentist... send the kids to daycare to clean the house... send the kids to daycare to go to the gym... send the kids to daycare to host a party... send the kids to daycare to just have a day off... where does it end? For some people, it doesn't...

My wife + I didn't use daycare... we brought them to the dentist with us, we brought them to Dr. appointments with us, we brought them everywhere we went. So DON'T tell me you CAN'T do these types of things... because we've been there, we've done that.

It does mean you might have to sacrifice some time alone with your 'sweetie'. It does mean you might have to sacrifice some personal time, like pleasure shopping, massages, etc... It does simply mean personal sacrifice for your children.

The rewards however are... more than you could ever imagine. You realize what love really is. When your little one looks at you with their bright adoring eyes, and tells you they love you... you'll just melt... I don't care who you are. As they grow older, and become little adults, and see the way they conduct themselves, mimicking the way you conduct yourself, you just melt with pride. To see your 14 year old go get himself a job, and have random people tell you what a fine young man he is... you just melt with pride. To see your 15 year old learning to drive, scares the hell out of you! To see your 15 yr old playing on the high school football team, you just melt with pride. To see your 8 yr old acting in a play, you just melt with pride. To see your 10 year old learning to play guitar, and playing well enough to actually recognize what he's playing, you just melt with pride. To see your 9 year old learning + loving to play football, and baseball, you just melt with pride watching him. Seeing your own children grow also makes you realize what your own parents did for you, and you learn to love them even more. I have enjoyed and will continue to watch my boys grow up, they're both becoming such fine young men. I could not be more proud of them. Sometimes when watching them perform on the field, or listening to them, or watching them interact with each other, or with other people... I actually swell with pride so much, it brings tears to my eyes... honestly.

So, as you see, your life, your own personal life, must take a back seat, must have no meaning as you raise children... Their lives give your life a whole new meaning, one far superior to your own...

As always I welcome any and all questions and comments...

Carl Genius