Parenting 12224

The most important thing a parent can do is allow the kids to be themselves so they could find God’s plan for them.  When they were young, they were noisy and that was allowed. We knew they would get annoyed and get mad at each other. We regarded bad behavior as physical fighting and breaking things and didn’t allow that.   

We had 5 girls and 1 boy over 8 years and they played with each other as soon as they could walk. My brothers 4 kids lived next door and they joined in playing with our kids.  My wife Marlene was a stay-at-home mom.

As they grew older, they needed their space and that was allowed. I knew that each of my 6 kids were as different as their DNA. I knew they had free will and needed to develop self-discipline. We raised them with love, humor and lots of space as our parents had done. We took them to Church and said prayers with them.  We encouraged them to learn what they needed to know, but let them decide how hard they wanted to study in school. They decided to get As and Bs and took jobs at age 16. Nobody got an allowance. We provided the cars. All went to college and had no loans to repay. We had received our inheritance from Marlene’s father and used it to subsidize their tuition. They were all graduated by 1995. They all got occupational degrees. Tuition was cheaper and colleges were just beginning to get useless and too expensive.  They made it out just in time.

Our parenting continues and we help our kids through the rough spots. We maintain the “family home” and ensure that none of them will be homeless. We celebrate holidays with our kids, grand-kids and great grandkids. We stay in daily contact with our kids by phone. We are repeating what we saw our parents and grand parents do and our kids are repeating this themselves. This is part of human culture. Families have helped other families. Neighbors help neighbors. Friends help friends. Families help their family members. Chairity begins at home. If kids have difficulties we apply persistence and help them recover. We are each primarily responsible for ourselves and need to call on God to help as well.

We do not support requests for money outside of our family responsibilities. We don’t participate in marches or protests. We reject social-justice activism. We are not addicted to social media. We are inner-directed not other-directed.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader