Eight Things Great Parents Do: #1 – #4

Today, I’m going to tell you about eight things great parents do. In actuality, great parents do more than eight things but the darn bots that run blogs – and have virtually taken over the world for that matter – insist on short articles with numbers. So I’m only going to obey the computerized masters of the universe and list eight things great parents do.

The bots don’t know this but I chose the number eight because it rhymes with Nate and great. You don’t have to say it, I all ready know. I’m quite the poet and without question we both know it – need I say more!

Speaking of saying more, there is one caveat before I begin outlining the list. You are going to have to promise to keep the things that I share with you a secret. That’s right! I want you to swear that you won’t tell another soul what I’m about to tell you.

Seriously, I don’t really want or expect you to keep what I’m going to share with you a secret. In fact, I only said keep it a secret because I know most people can’t keep a cold to themselves much less a secret. If I tell you it’s a secret, the overwhelming odds are that you will be compelled to open your big mouth and want to tell somebody what I told you as soon as possible.

So go right ahead, open your big mouth and tell every parent you meet the eight things great parents do.

The First Four Things Great Parents Do

• Take Care of Yourself (Mind, Body & Spirit) – If Herbet Spencer were alive today, he might tell us that parenting is a kin to the evolutionary rule, Survival of the Fittest. Parenting is a contact sport and the parents who do the best job of taking care of their mind, body and spirits are the parents who generally do the best job raising children. If your dietary habits are poor, you aren’t exercising routinely and you aren’t nurturing your mind and spirit daily, you are probably making parenting more difficult than it has to be. 

• Don’t Talk About It Be About It – Almost every parent talks about how much they love their children, how much family means to them, yah dah yah dah yah dah. Yet, when it comes to matching talk with action, many parents remind me of an episode of Sesame Street. If you spend more than eight hours a day at work, if when you are home you are working, if you miss more than 10% of your children’s activities, if you only share a meal with your child on weekends, if the meals you share are fast food or heat-n-eat, if you don’t have the contact information for the parents of your child’s five closest friends…you most likely are simply talking about and not being about parenting. If any of the aforementioned describe you, in the words of Cookie Monster when it comes to the love of your children and the importance of family, “one of these things is not like the other”.

• Master the Parenting Universe – Parenting is a profession. Parenting is not a hobby. Children have the best chance to be extraordinary adults when parents master parenting. Your children are special to you aren’t they? You do want your children to be extraordinary don’t you? Well If you in fact truly want to raise children who are other than common and average, parenting is not the time or subject matter for you to be the living and breathing personification of the quote “Jack of all trades, master of none”. It’s perfectly acceptable for you to be competent with many skills – job, friend, brother/sister, community leader, etc. – but is absolutely tantamount if you are going to consider yourself to be a great parent that you are actually outstanding at parenting. 

• Only One King/Queen to Each Castle – Great parents raise children who respect authority. In the home where there is outstanding parenting, there exists a clear demarcation about who is in charge. In the home where great parents are raising extraordinary children, there is never a suspicion that the “inmates are running the asylum”. Authority doesn’t have to be abrasive, confrontational or cruel. Authority is love. I love my son more than life itself and out of the love I have for him, he understands unequivocally that there can only be one King of Zamunda at a time. For as long as I’m alive, I’m King Jaffe Joffer and he is Prince Akeem. If your child can’t accept and embrace the Circle of Life and tries to rule the kingdom before the sun has set on your time as ruler, you need to introduce them to these words “you don’t have to go home but you have to get the H – E double hockey sticks out of here”.

Four is Only Half of Eight

These are the first four of the eight things great parents do. Now go ahead and open your big mouth and tell my secret to every parent you see. Maybe by the time I get to share the remaining four things, my secret will have spread nationally and we will be well on our way to revolutionizing the institution of parenting. A man can hope, can’t he!

Don’t leave before you read things five to eight. Click here now!