When people hear the word “investment” they most likely are thinking about stocks, bonds, mutual funds or annuities. Personally, though all of those things do have value, they are not the investments that I consider to be most important.
I am often told that I have great kids (and I do agree with that!) and how very fortunate I am that my boys talk to me about important things and want to spend time as a family. I cherish the relationship that the three of us have and I know we all three value what we have created. As a family unit we are very strong.
That being said, parenting is HARD work. It requires patience, humor, tolerance, an understanding of how to take a deep breath, compromise, a willingness to say “I am sorry” or “I was wrong” and so very much more. Most important of all, parenting requires an investment.
From the time my boys were born I made sure that they knew they were a priority to me. We talked.. a lot! I wanted to know about their day, what was the high, what was the low, how did they feel about school, people, experiences, etc. We spent time together and during that time I made a point of being as present as possible. Granted back then it was in the days before cell phones, but life back then had its own form of distractions. We spent time going to parks, crunching leaves, watching the stars come out,
singing with Barney, discussing the challenges that Pooh ran into and so much more. I invested early in them through conversation and actions and set the foundation of how we would communicate with each other. I knew that I could not expect to one day have teenagers who would want to sit around chatting with mom if I didn’t show them early on that I wanted to hear what they had to say.
The boys learned the importance of time together and supporting each other through example. When Christopher
was on the soccer field and I some how was assigned the role of team coach (I had never before touched a soccer ball!), Z was on the sideline cheering him on. When Z was on the basketball court it was Christopher on the sidelines coaching him along and as a family we spent a total of 8 years on the pool deck as they each participated in water polo and swimming. There was never the question of “Do I have to go?”, instead it was the question of “What time is the game?”. I cannot begin to describe the first time I saw them show up to one of my work functions on their own. They came through the door with friends in tow to “help me out” and I knew in that moment they really do understand the value of family. They learned through the time we invested together the importance of being there for each other and that is a lesson that takes investment from everyone.
Do I have great kids? Yep!! Were they born great? Yep!! But it
required time, investment, compromise, patience, love and an awful lot of God’s grace to create the relationship that we each have.