Tag Archives: kids

Challenge, Children, History, Issues of the Day, Parents

Family Relationships vs. Activity

Growing up in the 1960’s seemed like such a slower pace than we endure these days. As kids, we had long summer days at the creek, riding our bikes for miles on lonely country roads or creating forts in the woods behind our house. 

Sometimes we’d get the neighborhood kids together and play football, baseball or go sledding down numerous hills we could claim within walking distance from home.

Entertainment was a handheld AM transistor radio playing the latest tunes or a few black and white TV programs in the evening. We went to bed early after convincing Mom we had a bath two nights ago and didn’t need one that night. 

We caught fireflies in the summer and made campfires in the winter or anxiously waited for the creek to freeze so we could ice skate or play hockey. Ice hockey was preferred using the perfect dogged leg stick and a smashed tin can as a puck. 

We constantly used our imagination. Was there boredom? Yes, but that gave time for whittling a new slingshot, repairing a bike or accomplishing our chores. Oh yeah, chores. We had jobs to do and that often came before school work. 

There were expectations in those days. Families ate together, sat on the front porch together watching the cars go by and swatted flies. The adults read the newspaper and the kids read the funnies. Families talked about life, cousins or uncles in the military, house rules, right and wrong. There was talking, listening, and once in a while, laughter. Even the TV shows of the day were a picture of the same. 

The pace of life today is not the same. Families are going from activity to activity. Kids are having to wolf down Happy Meals or “value meals” over and over in order to make it to the next practice on time. We’re all too often missing the conversations around the dinner table and time together on the deck just talking and laughing. This fast paced life is valuing activity over relationship and it’s hurting family life. 

Will our children look back at their childhood and see mostly activity or remember relationship building as a family value? 

We live in a diffferent world today, but work hard at giving your children something to remember: RELATIONSHIP.

Standard
Children, Encouragement, In the news, Issues of the Day, Marriage, Men, Parents, Premarital, Singles

DINK’S – Have you Heard About Them?

It’s our culture’s latest attempt at trying to minimize what has historically been the norm when it comes to marriage. With couples marrying older and having fewer children, DINK’S have now become a thing.

What is a D.I.N.K? It’s an acronym: Double Income No Children.

Yep, more and more couples are opting for “wealth” and “freedom” over bearing and raising children. Is it selfishly motivated? Maybe. 

(Note: This is not a blog for those who long for children and who have been unable to conceive or where there are physical complications. For you, we grieve.) 

It sounds nice, even inviting to have more financial resources to travel, to buy nice things, to have money left over at the end of the month and to max out that 401K. But, what are they missing?

DINKS are missing out on a monumental part of life – bearing and raising children. The joy of children; the parental self-maturing of raising children; the personal pain and emotional ups and downs of child raising. Perhaps in your 30’s you’ll never miss out on children, but when you’re in your 50’s, I guarantee you it will be a different story. 

How will you look back on your life without the legacy of raising kids to adults? Further, you’ll never know or experience grandparenting.

Finally, what happens when you come to the end of your life? Who will be there? Where will all of the “stuff” you’ve collected go? Who will care for you and visit you if you need to be in a retirement home, while all of your friends and extended family are themselves passing? 

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” (Psalm 127:3)

Standard