Good parents can be found everywhere. I’m sure that you are among the best of the best! My parents were great and I as an adult I recognize the value of so many things that they did for me and taught me.
If I were ever to be a parent, I would hope to instill these same values in my children.
1. The importance of family
My parents were so great about creating the most wonderful family time. I am especially fond of the camping memories that I have. I did fight with my siblings for sure, as all kids do, but I also remember really enjoying being with them. We had a lot of fun together. I feel very fortunate that as an adult I count my four siblings among my very best friends and I know that is due to how our parent raised us.
2. They attended ALL of our events.
When I think about this today, it is absolutely mind boggling how my parents juggled everything. Somehow with both of them working full-time, they still managed to attend anything of importance for all 5 of us kids. I’m not just talking about the biggies here…I’m talking every sports game, concert, play, meeting, etc. They were SO present. I’m sure it could not have been easy at all. AND we were all VERY active in school. I so appreciate this about them. They were also always willing to open our home up for having all the friends over, sleep overs, parties (the good non-alcoholic kind). My friends would ask me to have them chaperone our dances. (really?!) and they did all of that!
3. They have ALWAYS been very supportive.
Related to point 2, I have always felt complete support from my parents. Throughout school, they would encourage us with our varied interests whether sports, music or general school activities. They hired a great vocal teacher for my sister and I. We would all travel the 40 minutes one way, once a week to get us to our lessons. When my Grandparents presented me with the opportunity to attend a boarding school (more on that in another post) for a semester, they supported it even though I know if was difficult for them to see me leave home at such an early age. When I wanted to spend my summers out East as a nanny so that I could begin to explore some of this inviting big world I’d been dreaming of, my parents allowed me to pursue this.
Even as an adult, I feel that consistent solid support of my parents. I know that they don’t always understand or agree with my decisions but they are steadfast in their support and believe in me. I have always felt that and I’ve always felt that I could achieve anything I set my mind to. I know this has everything to do with how they parented me. Even today, as I write this from my parents home (they are away traveling for the winter) I feel their support. I had planned to be here while they traveled and then that plan also became a necessity when I lost my job a few months ago. I’m so grateful to them that I am here today.
4. They taught me the foundations of my Christian faith.
I was raised Lutheran and grew up attending church and Sunday school weekly as well as bible camp in the summer. My family would read the bible and recite prayers each night after dinner and I knew all the classic hymns of worship. I didn’t really know what all of this meant in my life at the time. Heck, I didn’t really enjoy it all that much, truth be told. It was just something we did because we had to. No questions asked…really.
Into my adulthood, I would wander away a bit in terms of my faith. Like many young adults I began to question the things that I had been taught about “religion” as a child. I knew that the Lutheran church was not really the place for me. (nothing against Lutherans, of course!)
While living in San Francisco, I visited both extremes. One moment I felt more like I didn’t believe in God at all to then finding a wonderful little Foursquare Christian church which would become my home of sorts. I will speak more about this in another post, but for now I’ll just say that it was here that I began to know what it was to be in relationship with God.
Even though our spiritual paths and beliefs (Our core beliefs are the same.) have been different, I’m so grateful to my parents for bringing me up in a Christian home and for giving me that core knowledge of the Bible which is so important to me today.
5. They taught me to be a good person.
I am in no way claiming to be a saint here. For sure, I have my faults. I think my parents raised my siblings and me to be good people….to care about others and to know and do the right thing. At a young age, I learned that lying and stealing were wrong. IÂ learned a lesson as a child that some of you may have experienced which was having to take back something that I had taken to a store. Ick! What a horrible thing! And what a lesson. To this day, I would go out of my way to find an owner of found money, give back incorrect change at the grocery store, etc. I say this not to make it seem like I am so perfect…believe me, I’m not. BUT I do know the feeling in my gut when I do the “right” thing vs. the “wrong” thing. My parents taught me this.
These are just a few of the many things I appreciate most about my parents. I mentioned in an earlier post that they were in a bad accident 4 years ago. My siblings and I are SO grateful that they are still with us. I plan to be appreciating them for many more years and have assured them that I don’t plan for it to be from their own home for much longer! 😉
Thanks for everything Mom and Dad! I love my parents!
School bullying – I feel the pain of those that are bullying victims for sure!
The pictures here are of me in the 3rd and 4th grades. I went to elementary school (grades 1-4 only) in the 
I absolutely LOVED to do this. I would seek out other vantage points around my 
Here I take a little journey through thoughts of my adolescent body image as I recall it.
Here again, you can see that I was of pretty average weight. I don’t remember my parents feeding me anything other than the occasional treat when it came to sweets at this age.
In both of these pictures to the left, I was 12 years old. I believe I was very aware of my changing body and how I looked at this stage relating to my adolescence body image. Not sure what was going on with my jeans in the first picture. LOL AND it certainly doesn’t seem that I had an issue with showing my legs in the second picture. 😉
Introducing…Paula the Water Skier!
My grandfather and aunt taught me how to water ski when I was pretty young and they felt confident enough about me being in the water. I can remember sitting in the boat watching my aunt ski who was really quite good and desperately wanting to learn to water ski. Finally the day came and she loaned me a pair of water skiis. I’m sure that I did not get up that first day.
I have wonderful father daughter stories and memories of my childhood. Of course I loved my mother just as much as dear ol dad, but there was something about spending time with him that I loved. Perhaps it was because I was the first born and a girl at that. (My brother wouldn’t come along until 2 more daughters and several years later.) I guess one might have called me a tomboy in my youth and I don’t think I would have minded.
Memory #2 and why I know I did many things just to hang out with my father…aren’t little girls cute? 😉 I was my fathers daughter and I wanted to be by his side even if it meant the freezing cold of winter toting a gun and mindful of the tears freezing on my cheek because I was so uncomfortable. I did the gun safety course just as any son …errr daughter would do, but even before I could carry a gun I was going on these deer hunting expeditions with him.
Yes! The 
