Oops! Anything that Can Happen, WILL Happen

Mortified.  

One day my wife was home alone with our oldest son, Adam, who had just turned 2 years old, and she heard the phone ring in the other room.  

She was indisposed so she let it ring, assuming whoever called would just call back later.  

Suddenly she heard a noise in the other room, sounding like the receiver being lifted, immediately signaling something was going wrong.  

Then she heard, “Hello,” in a 2 year-old’s voice.  
Now, unable to move, she sat in panic mode listening from the other room, alarmed at what might happen next—while also impressed that the 2 year old was clever enough to pick up the phone and answer it.  

Quickly, her first worst fears were realized as she heard the child’s voice in the other room say, “No, Mommy can’t come. She’s taking a poop,” followed immediately by a click.  

Adam hung up.  

Mortified, it dawned upon her that she had no idea who had called and there was nothing she could do to find out.  

The moral of the story: Keep an eye on your kids at all times.  
Keep an eye on your employees, your trainees because the innocent and cute little suckers can inadvertently create all kinds of chaos for you if you let them.  

The Big Education Lie

Parents fall for this lie every time. 

Society convinces every new generation of families that education is the #1 solution for all of their kids problems and so they set their priorities accordingly. They believe the overwhelming key for their kids to have a great, stable and successful life is education!

Education, Education, Education! Above all things get educated and you’ll be set for life. 

Education is the key. Go to school, do your homework, get your diploma and the job is done preparing you for life as a responsible, productive, independent adult.

The truth is…NO IT'S NOT!

Millions of highly educated people, young and old, have plunged their lives into disaster by poor choices. 

You want examples? They are everywhere in all countries and all walks is life and more new ones show up on the news everyday. 

Bernie Madoff ripping off thousands of trusting investors- even his own relatives, Tiger Woods at the peak of fulfillment in live throwing it all away for a little extra forbidden pleasure, brokers on Wall Street snorting cocaine, Enron executives building a global company on total fraud and deceit, T.V. evangelists caught with prostitutes, female high school teachers running off with 13 year old boys…do I really need to add anymore?

It’s not what you know, it’s what you do with it. The source of all these disasters is lack of values and character. These must be taught. 

No two year old is going to have their first words be “yes ma’am” or “yes sir.” When they hit the Earth and gain consciousness, sight, mobility, and the ability to speak, they go right to work trying to organize the world for their benefit. 

The first word many babies say—announcing their presence in the world is…”NO!” They are totally self-centered, and why shouldn’t they be? They’re not independent yet and need others to take care of them.

It’s all about them. That changes when you go out into the real world. Now you’re supposed to be independent and take care of yourself. Jobs, marriage, and having children demand that you focus on doing things for others. Without character and values you can’t resist the temptations to take short cuts for extra pleasure, extra money, and extra glory. And you’ll do it even if it involves breaking laws, breaking confidences, or destroying relationships.

Kids need to be taught right from wrong. Kids need be taught respect for authority. They need to be taught respect for others. This isn’t going to happen by itself, and if it isn’t done it won’t matter what education they have. They will have knowledge but they won’t have a foundation. You can build a building but without a firm foundation, it’s just a matter of time before it crumbles.

Make sure your kids get a great education but also make sure they have a firm foundation of values and character to stand on as they go through life.  

Question: How about you? Do you know any very smart people who have done some very dumb things?

Idiotic Ideas: "Let's Not Keep Score"

Crazy!

There are school districts in the country that have discontinued the practice of keeping score in games! No scoreboards!

Who are they kidding? Having kids compete in sports and not keeping score?!

The kids aren’t dumb.
It’s funny to hear reports that the kids keep score on their own. They are smarter than the parents! Even young kids are smart enough to know that there is no reason to play a game if you aren’t going to keep score.

Sure, there are always some overzealous parents at these games, but the solution is not to stop scoring. The solution is to exclude parents who can’t behave. 

The point of this is?
What do they think they are “teaching” their kids? Ribbons, trophies and medals for all—just for running around on a field? Life doesn’t work like that. You not only have to get in the game, you have to do well. If you aren’t any good you have to get better. Or find another sport. 

We want more emotional cripples?
Teaching kids to live in denial, to operate in a fantasy world of no judgement does nothing but create emotional cripples unable to deal with the tresses and realities of life. Sure its tough. Sure it hurts to lose. 

But if they can’t learn to handle the emotions of youth sports they’ll never survive in the real world. They need to be comforted, but its equally important that they be encouraged to stand up and fight and improve. Teaching them its good enough to show up and just go through the motions, that effort doesn’t really matter is idiotic and destructive.

Who comes up with this stuff?
Who are these eggheads who come up with these theories? How to they get to positions of authority? Somebody hasn’t been checking credentials, because this is nuts! They’re so out of touch they are oblivious to the fact that kids want a chance to become winners!

When you don’t keep score you deny that to them.

The real world has no use for these theories
Here is reality: In life you have to deliver. You have to perform. You have to meet standards. You have to get emotionally involved. 

If you want real jobs with responsibility and big income you have to be reliable. That ability is not inborn. It’s something that must be developed. 

Kids need chances to develop toughness
As you grow up, you need chances and opportunities to develop emotionally as well as intellectually. That happens by giving kids chances to perform and compete. They need to find out for themselves what levels of effort and intensity they need to exert. They need to develop their own coping skills to deal with disappointment. 

Let them compete! Let them learn how to overcome disappointment and Win! 

Let them keep score!

“I don't know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports.” —President Richard M. Nixon 

Stuff From My InBox: Kindergarteners....

Just Because It's Creative and Fun, Doesn't Mean It's the Right Thing to Do

Kids get the most creative ideas and do the funniest things.

I always tell parents to get a book and write them down when they happen because you think you’ll remember them, but you won’t.

So there's 3 year old Hailey and 5 year old John. Mom says, for some reason, John and Hailey fight constantly. She tells me Hailey is a strong willed young girl.  She won't be pushed around by the older brother. How unusual.

Mom says it's not all Hailey's fault that they bicker so much, because John's not always an angel himself. In fact John is constantly getting Hailey into trouble. For example, recently John suggested to Hailey what a great idea it would be to open the refrigerator door and go in and to crack every egg in the container.

Hailey agreed this would be a wonderful idea so she proceeded to follow through on the plan, happily cracking each egg one by one, grabbing them, squeezing them, experiencing only the thrill that cracking an egg by hand can bring. John enjoyed watching this disaster unfold immensely. Then mom arrived and stopped the party.

However that wasn't the end of it. The memory lingered of this incredible experience with Hailey, so much so that she felt compelled to go back to the kitchen the next day and repeat the entire process.

This happens in Business. Some energetic and creative but inexperienced entrepreneurs get some new ideas and launch out on new adventures. Caught up in the energy of doing something new and fun, before they know it they’ve created a total disaster.

Here’s the Moral.
Just because its new, its fun and it sounds like the right thing to do, doesn’t mean it actually is a winning play. Keep an eye on the bottom line when you try new things. The results will tell you how good this new idea is. If its good, you’ll have new positive growth.

And remember…When your young kids say and do funny things, write it down!

Let Kids Find Their Passion

Kids are full of curiousity!

That is such a precious thing. Their own natural curiousity is the thing that gives them energy and drives them forward. They aren't asking questions and learning and trying things because they were told to, they are doing it because they want to.

The entire rest of their lives they will put  ten times more energy into things they are naturally interested in as opposed to things they are told they should be paying attention to.

Their own natural interests are always there.

They can’t help it and they can’t stop it. They just have that curiosity, love and fascination.

So don’t fight it. Encourage it. There is a reason that curiosity and interest is there. It doesn’t matter if anyone in your family has the same interest. It doesn’t matter if anyone you know is involved in it. All that matters is that your child is.

Give them exposures to lots of activities, see what grabs their attention and then encourage them.

Let them grow in the direction they are driven.

They will always be more productive, happy and fufilled in life following their own natural passion. And the bad news for all the control freak parents out there, you can’t choose it for them. In fact they don’t even choose it for themselves, its just in them.

This is not something you’ll have big results resisting, so the best thing is…to just cheer them on!