kids

i just spent a week with my "extended family" - the fellowship gathering, 6-7 families that have been vacationing together for 33 years. it all started with some of the dads going to seminary together at princeton in the 70s and then interning in DC. but that's not the point of this post.

I am the youngest member of generation 2 - the children of the couples who interned together in the 70s in DC. being with the rest of my generation is educational, mostly because i'm looking at my future. there were babies everywhere.

it started me thinking about what i want to do with my kids. i don't usually like many human beings under age 13. i'm told that will change when it's my own kids.

here are my thoughts, gathered from watching parents make mistakes as well as good decisions with my friends, myself, and youth group kids.

Support whatever hobbies they're into.
Have a huge family tree on the wall with pictures.
Apologize and ask forgiveness from them.
Save up money to send them to really good schools.
Go to garage sales for their clothes and toys.
Give them toys that help them do other things and are not goals in themselves - like a rebounder, balls, boxes, wheely carts
Let them argue with you and explain why you decide to do things.
If you fight with your husband in front of them, resolve the fight in front of them.
Practice hospitality in front of them, to their friends and to those in need in the church.
Everyone does chores.
Kids cook meals when they're able and interested.
Pray continuously.
Let them get summer jobs. Or better yet, volunteer to take care of old people in the church.
Make them drive really crappy cars.
Ask other people's advice about raising my kids.
Expose your kids to a wide range of music.
Expose your kids to a wide range of ideas and talk about them.
Expose your kids to a wide range of people - and talk about it.
Send your kids to a non-Christian school.
Let your kids do whatever they want with their hair and talk through the consequences.
Listen non-judgmentally.
Try to do cloth diapers.
Just blend up your own food and feed it to your baby.
Read widely yourself.
If we have a TV, only let them watch movies and public access tv and don't have a tv be the center of any room
Walk around in your underwear and use the right anatomy words.
Have a garden with a compost pile.

one extremely frightening thing that happened last week was that a member of generation 3, close to one year old, would sometimes (i witnessed this twice) get so angry and upset that she would stop breathing while walking towards her mother. her little face would turn purple and she would PASS OUT. her mom would hold her and laugh and blow in her face until she woke up. wtf.