Just Thoughts and Nothing Else

Pride is a feeling sometimes of great accomplishments, sometimes it's of others that you know and their accomplishments,sometimes it's of disappointments of your life or of others in your life that have disappointed you and hurt your pride and took away the pride you felt about certain situations.

Whatever the situation or emotion that you feel when you are prideful, is individualized each and every time you feel it.

When your children are small and you teach them something you start to say things like show daddy what you can do. The child does that special feat for the day and your heart bursts with pride not only for the child's accomplishment, but also for yourself that you taught your child that special thing!
You child goes off to school and comes home with a great report card and gets praise beyond what you might have expected and again you are so proud of him/her because of it and even more so you are proud that they are your child and that somehow you might have had something to do with their accomplishments that made them get such a good report card.
Off to high school and your child is suddenly so popular, or such a star in sports, or an honor student and again you are not only proud that your now young adult is doing so well, but because again you are proud of the job you have done thus far at raising him/her and giving them the tools needed to be a better person on so many levels.
Off to college and again he/she is excelling, getting great grades, not causing trouble and you boast to your friends how proud you are of them! But you are also feeling the great pride of knowing you may have contributed to the overall wonderful person they are becoming.
Getting married, having children and you are so proud of the husband/wife they are, the mother/father they are and again you feel great pride in their success at life in general.
Then there is the different kind of pride that gets in the way of you living your life, staying in contact with a child just because they've disappointed you in some way throughout their lives, they weren't exactly what you had hoped for and not only have you made the child feel as if they were not worthy of your praise for at least some of the things they've accomplished, but they feel as if you've never been proud of them because from the very first disappointment you withdrew from them and didn't praise them like you should have for even the small things.
Now they are all grown up and PRIDE gets in the way of your own need to feel your childs love and closeness again and you suddenly wonder why is this? Why has my child turned away from me, why do I never hear from them, what was it I've done that made them turn away, keep away, stay away????? "Why don't they ever call me?"
Every person in life needs to be proud of even the little things in life that they are able to accomplish. Every single person needs to understand that maybe they don't make as much money as maybe one of their siblings or as a friend of theirs does. Maybe someone else that they know has accomplished more than they could ever dream of accomplishing, but that they themselves always seem to make poor judgments or wrong choices and they think that the whole world is against them. They even lose pride in themselves! They don't care how they dress, act, or even talk anymore because they just don't matter to anyone including themselves!

So as a parent who probably has been guilty of a couple of the un-prideful moments in my child's life, I say "I'm sorry" I will make no excuses for something I may not have been taught to do, but I was always proud as I can be for my children and all they are able to accomplish in life. My moments may not have been too many in my life, because they all still talk to me and they don't stay away, so for that I am thankful, each and every day of my life!

But for others who have let their children slip away because of some foolish pride, or you have lost the love of your life because of some foolish pride, I say go out and make amends, get out there and tell them you love them and that you were always proud of them in every way. You never wanted them to feel that you didn't care, nor that you were not proud, but that YOU JUST DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING!
Don't waste any more time in doing this because of your foolish pride, because waiting for tomorrow is not an option and you may never get another chance!
Because tomorrow is upon us and there's no time like the Present to turn things around!!!

What a day we had! It was a very warm day and the days were getting fewer and fewer before school started so we decided at the spur of the moment to visit the Adler Planitarium because at least it would be air conditioned! We got there and much to our surprise, there were jets flying and dive bombing because the very next day they were going to have the air and water show so I guess they were practicing.
We had a great time watching them and the kids were probably not as thrilled as the grownups, but I guess they would have to be a little older for them to really appreciate what we did.
Isn't it funny, you live in a City that you would never think of leaving and yet every year you don't make time to enjoy all it has to offer every single minute of the summer?
We also visited Ed Debevic's after the Planitarium and the kids were in awe from the rudeness of the waitresses and waiters. They were so in awe that they actually were afraid to speak! Well that is except for the one and only very outspoken one who shall remain nameless but what a courageous child. Our waitress didn't pick on him so much, she was too busy picking on me! She asked why I didn't think it would have been better to go to "Chucky Cheese" with all these kids?
she threw straws and napkins at us when she served our drinks and gave us a hard time about everything.
Only in America can someone treat you very rudely and you still leave them a tip!
"What a country"

I was at my son's elementary school today picking up supplies and other school information. One of the papers I was given quickly caught my attention. The PTO was letting me know that as a parent volunteer this year I would need to give my driver's license to be swiped at the office upon every visit to the school. Last year they wanted each parent volunteer to fill out and submit a form for a background and finger print check. It was explained that the district wanted to be sure that all school volunteers were not registered sex offenders. Last year I never bothered to fill the form out, and was never given any issues upon entering the building. This new letter further explained that because most parents were non compliant last year due time and cost involved that a new way would be implemented. The district decided to purchase devices for every middle and elementary school (both High school's already had them)within the district. Now upon arrival at school volunteers will go into the office to sign in ( as usual), hand over our license or state I.D so that our name and birth date can be checked against the sex offender registry. The letter also stated that the check will not "retain" information.I'm not sure exactly what that means since it will only obtain sex offender information? None the less I have mixed feelings on the issue. In part it feels like an invasion of privacy (which is why I didn't comply last year) but I also feel more reassured knowing that the adults in the building are not sexual child predators. So what do you do as a parent? I will comply and show my license even though in some ways I feel it is unnecessary, costly and an invasion of my privacy. I guess what it comes down too is this; I am more concerned with protecting my child with all the new technological advances that are available rather than take a stand against my rights being violated ( to some extent). I know that if I or "we" don't take a stand somewhere that it is very likely many of our rights as a "Free American" will be violated. I guess this is just not where or when I am ready to take that stand..., but just wait till the day comes when I get ticketed for speeding through my I-Pass lane (if they can read the plate they can surely detect my speed) look out!! I will surely stand on my soap box then!!!