Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Hello on Tuesday

Dear Friends,

Linda and I finally had a chill day with no commitments. It was a great way for us to end the Labor Day weekend. I did send Linda out to get some farm fresh corn on the cob. The on and off rain stopped jut in time for me to char some "Dine In" precooked baby back ribs. Linda whipped up a tomato and Cucumber salad. Supper was wonderful.

Speaking of food, I will be cooking hot dogs and hamburgers (lunch time) for the Tuesday Mah Jongg session which Linda is hosting today. I might be cooking in a rain slicker which I have had much practice doing.

This evening we will be attending a Jimmy Fund Polenta Dinner at the ITAM at
6 PM. I reserved a table of 10 which is almost filled up. I am not going to be working in the kitchen even though one of my UNICO brothers is the head chef for this fundraiser. I will be dining with Linda and some friends.

Well, the buses will be rolling this morning as schools throughout the county open their doors. It has been so long that either of us were participants in the opening of school that it is a distant memory. We enjoy our current phase of life so much that we have no desire to return to the classroom.

Speaking of schools and some comments from one of my readers that Americans schools are in dire straits, the first teachers of children are their parents. If parents do their job before any child enters the classroom (and continue working from pre K through high school), those children will most likely do well. That is the problem right there. As the family structure / unit has changed or deteriorated so has our society. Like I said before, it takes a mom and a dad to raise a child. Yes, I do know that there are some great single parents raising their children, but I would bet that they would love to have another set of hands to help out with child rearing.
We now have grandparents doing a good deal of the child rearing. None of our baby boomers friends grew up with grandparents raising us. Grandma and Grandpa were people that you went to visit, share holidays, participate in birthdays, etc., but you went back home after a visit.
Making babies is the easy part, but the real work takes place after the birth of a child. Linda and I love to see our sons and daughter-in-laws interact and work with their children. Their offspring are so lucky to have such great parents. We grandparents don't mind helping out like I did last week with a little baby sitting, but we both know we will eventually return to our retiree life.

It is also a job of parents to install a work ethic in their children. The work ethic can be in the form a mom who decides to be a stay at home mom (which is a full time job during the formative years). Every thing that we do as parents will eventually be a learned behavior in our children. If mom and dad stay home all day, and neither able bodied parent goes off to work, why wouldn't a child think that this must be a way of life when the child becomes an adult?

Schools are asked to play the role as Mom and Dads because there are so many dysfunctional families. The amount of actual teaching in the classroom has decreased over the years since we are solving other issues in those classrooms. Teachers spend a lot of time trying to catch students up to the same level as their classmates who didn't have moms and dads doing their job as parents. The social services that schools now provide were nonexistent when we baby boomers went to school. Pedro Martinez (a Red Sox pitcher at the time) made the comment about the Red Sox vs Yankee rivalry as they were about to do battle: "Who's your Daddy?" Those words can apply to the many dysfunctional families who send their kids off to school on a daily basis.

Fix the family, and society will fall right into place!

Sports -- The Red Sox lost a heart breaking extra inning game in Toronto as the Yankees won a slugfest by a 11 to 10 score. The Yankees have increased their lead against the second place Red Sox. Oh Darn!

One of my exciting activities yesterday besides watching sports was to ball up some yarn for Linda. She has been working feverishly knitting some items for our female grandchild who will be arriving this coming February to Kevin and Kyla.

Have a great day at work or play!
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad

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