Parenting Blog

"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." -- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Daily life blurs by so fast that sometimes it's only when we step outside it for a vacation that we realize just how fast our children are growing up.  That happened for me last week on a family bike trip.  Our son, now 18 and leaving for college in the fall, was our leader and navigator.  Our daughter, who celebrated her 14th birthday on the trip, proved a more capable rider than I was.  At dinner, I would listen to their spirited conversation and somehow see their three year old selves twinkling inside the funny, good-natured teens they've become. How did this happen?

It's a cliche because it's true: Children grow up fast.  Here we are, just trying to get dinner on the table and buy another pair of shoes to replace the ones they've outgrown, and our kids are rapidly becoming who they'll be for the rest of their lives.

The worst part is that our job is basically done by the time they're teens. It's never too late to improve things with our kids, but who they are and how much influence we have on them depends mostly on how we've related to them in the first decade of their lives, and primarily the first five years.

I wish someone had told me when my toddlers were being difficult that everything I did, every word I said, was helping shape them... and how short that opportunity was. I would have done some things differently.

And you? Anything you want to do differently before your child gets any older?