Being Here, There and Wherever ... a Priority

The topic for this week's TOS Blog Cruise is, "What's the one thing you hope your children remember from their childhood?"

This caused me to think about my own childhood and my fondest memories. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is how involved my parents always were in our activities, whether it was sports, dance, drama, or church programs. My parents were always there in the audience. They both worked blue collar jobs, so they weren't always able to attend things that happened during the day with school. But I can remember my mom being the Home Room Mother and coordinating parties on the phone from home. She couldn't go to the party, but she could get the party arranged. That always meant a lot to me.

I am that kind of mom who wants to be at every single thing, no matter how small. With homeschooling, it's a lot easier because if my child is doing it, I probably had a hand in arranging it. Even with homeschooling, however, it's easy to become one of the moms who just drops her kids off and comes back later. I want to be more involved in that ... not for myself, but for them. I want them to always know that they can count on me.

This past Friday we ran into a conflict when it came to this. I had planned a field trip for Dawson and Brynne to the Renaissance Festival to kick off Dawson's requested unit study on knights. Then I found out that Eli had his Track and Field Day on that same day at his school. Obviously I couldn't be in two places at once. So, Rick took off work to go with Eli so that I could still go on our field trip (it was Student Day on Friday, so the cost was considerably lower.)

Rick said that there were lots of parents there helping with the events. But, there weren't very many parents there just being with their kids. He said that there especially weren't very many dads. He watched Eli from afar, but he was there. And it was SO important to Eli.

We contrasted this with the involvement of our neighbors. The mom is a stay-at-home mom. The dad works in another state and is only home a couple of weekends a month. He was home this weekend. He was home on Friday. But he was power washing his pool deck. They have a daughter who is in Eli's class. She is an only child. Rick was pretty upset that neither one of them were there watching her. Parents are always welcome at that school. To us, the little girl heard from her parents, "Our pool is more important than you. Our stuff is more important than you." It's not the first time they have said this to her with their actions. To me, she appears to be a very lonely little girl, always swinging on her swingset alone.

I don't do everything right as a parent. But, I am involved. We are involved. We are always there, unless it is just physically impossible. Our kids are not lonely.

When they look back on their childhoods, I hope that they remember how important they were to us, how they were our priority, how we were always involved in what they were doing (even if only to be a support).

What do you hope your kids remember about their childhood? What they remember, good or bad, will affect them for the rest of their lives.

You can go to the TOS Blog Cruise site to see how other Cruisers answered the question. The post goes live tomorrow.