Week 21 - What have you changed in comparison to the way your parents raised you?

I'm trying to figure out what my parents did to raise me.  If I could only figure out this key, I think I'd have it made.  It's funny how growing up you do everything the opposite of what your parents ask you to do, at least until you learn that what they are saying is actually right.  Then when you become a parent yourself, you can't remember what your parents did to teach you how to be a productive citizen of society.  It's almost like a new veil is put across your face when you become a parent and have your own little one to raise.  You have to figure it out for yourself all over again.

I'm sure plenty of people would say otherwise, but I think I turned out pretty good.  I've got a long way to go, but at least I realize that now and I understand that I make mistakes.  I also understand that I can fix those mistakes.  I often wonder what my parents did to get me to this point in my life.  As we push through one boy that is a crazy three-year-old, I wonder how we will ever get him to be a productive member of society-let alone a person that can be obedient to a few simple rules.  I guess it is simply said, we all learn line upon line and precept upon precept.

While I could go through a list of things I think Kelly and I are changing in the way we raise our boys from how we were raised.  I don't really remember how I was raised at the young ages we are encountering right now, so it may not be different at all.  At the same time, some of the ideas we have as far as raising our boys change as we go along.  For example, we thought we'd never use a binky.  That lasted about a month or so with our first boy.  Then, we became big fans of anything that would help the boy stop crying.  Binky worked - binky was reinstated into our way of raising children.  Another idea was that we'd never have our kids eat fast food.  On a vacation one time we stopped at a burger joint and Ivin fell in love with burgers, fries and especially root beer.  It is now a special family outing to go and get a bag of burgers, fries and some root beer.

I think we try to feed our boys a little better than some of the out of the box food I remember having growing up, but who knows what will actually happen as we have more kids.  With only two kids getting dinner together is such a crazy chore.  It is understandable why we ate out of the box growing up.  We'll see what happens as we have more children.