This bit of wisdom came my way via Twitter:

#QUOTE: “The greatest service you can ever do is to teach your Children to make Good Decisions.” ~~Mike Wesely

And my response:

@Mike_Wesely How about just teaching them how to make decisions? The “good” part is beyond teaching I think. #QUOTE

First of all, for those of you who don’t know what Twitter is, its sort of like instant messaging or texting except it can be done at your leisure and can be broadcast for all the world to see and read. Like that exchange was.

So anyway, I got to tell you that if it is possible to teach kids to make good decisions, I probably did and continue to do a pretty bad job. And at that I’ve got a great bunch of kids. Wouldn’t trade‘em for anything and family life would be nonexistent without them.

But here’s the thing, how could you teach good decisions even if you wanted to or thought you could? By making good decisions yourself maybe? Yeah right. Like I already don’t put enough pressure on myself. On the otehr side of the coin, many of us know how well the old, “Do as I say do, not as I do do.” works.

My thing has always been to share the basis and thought process that go into the decisions I make with the kids. Sometimes they’ll listen, sometimes they’ll pretend, and other times they’ll have none of it. But when it comes to making their own decisions, they will often try their own thought processes out. Perhaps later they’ll come to the conclusion that the old man might have known a thing or three after all. Regardless, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You do the best you can with your kids. Spend as much time with them as you can. Enjoy them and make memories. Coach’em up. But ultimately one day those little ships will sail wherever they decide to or wherever the prevailing winds take them. At that point all you can do is step aside and pray. Oh and be there to pick up the pieces and put their lives back together again should they run aground.

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