Parenting for our Youth's Future

Dear Parent,

For the kids. We need to bring back our families. The family life that provides stability and security. Now more than ever we have at our fingertips, options to build fundamental resources. I know it is a challenging time for you all these days! As a parent with two grown children I know what it feels like to navigate through work-home balance. However, today's parenting challenges are more than just a work-home balance. There are challenges from society. We want the best for our children. And as the old saying goes "it takes a village". In our case, a Community. During my years of raising my kids, I had many challenges due to being a single parent. The one sided affair left little time for me and kids to have quality of time outside of my work schedule and their school schedule. By the time the day was done, there were only a few hours left for our quality time together. Now, thirty years later, I see so many who are experiencing a single parenting situation in their lives. And all I can think is, how did we get this way? How can we become a Family Sector that provides a stable foundation for our children. As I speak to youth, I hear heartbreaking stories. The main voice they are straining to speak is they don't know where to turn. Many are left without proper guidance because parents are busy with work and keeping up with the growing changes in society. If I could, I would become the Old Woman Who Living in a Shoe. My heart is completely drawn towards helping our youth become stronger in their values and become an advocate for their behalf to educate them to make a greater choice so they can make the right choices when it comes to relationships and marriage.

Sometimes in life we do not have an option to make a choice that we feel is the best choice. However, when I look back at my poor choices, I realize that even though at the time it seemed I had no other choice, I really did. I just didn't realize that my poor choice was either out of laziness or fear.

I was married twice and had one child from each marriage. I made a decision when I got pregnant that I would give my all to my kids and for my kids. Regardless of my failing marriage and my dysfunctional life in my childhood. We did not have money, and we did not have alot of support, but I stood true to my own ability to provide the best for these two little lives. To give them what I never had. Love and Support.

Thats all they ask for. Now that my children are grown, they can attest to one fact, I dedicated my love and time, outside of work and other responsibilities to be there for them like no one else was.

Which brings me to my point. All children really need is your support through their growing years. To know that someone has their back as they fumble through their growth process. We as parents think discipline is the key to developing a healthy well adaptive child, and it is a part of parenting, but you, being a supportive figure while they make mistakes and guiding them down a morally based path, while most of the world is going to backwards can turn over a highly functional adult for their future world to come.

In conclusion, we are at a very transitional time, and your voice and example matters. Make this a time for our youth to give them a vision that we know they deserve. What does their future look like to you? Do you think they have had the same opportunities that should have carried on from our ancestors? What will their history look like based on the current foundation they have to work with? Do what you can to make their lives worth living and function in ways that create what they were born to be.

Here's to a Bright Future!