Mike Rainone
Hammertime
Through all those sometimes gritty but hopefully glorious trials and tribulations of raising a family, as parents and grandparents all of us love to cherish the joys and best memories of watching our children grow up.
Along the way, as our siblings finally enter into their own grand adventures of becoming adults and moms and dads, we can now sit back and look forward to the countless successes and blessings that will come their way for all of us to share for a life-time.
Over the years each and every family has joyfully collected and shared all sorts of albums and boxes full of pictures and memories of each and every phase of the growth of our children. As we dust them off on so many gala occasions we will follow the countless milestones and memories of their youth, all the way from their first step to their first tooth, first word, first day in school, first team, first report card, first crush, first date, first dance, first car, and on and on until graduation, college, careers, marriage, and on through the best and all the rest of their active lives. Fast forward to today it is now so much easier to keep very close to our children and grandchildren and their day-to-day adventures where-ever they may be thanks to the arrival of email, Facebook, skyping, iPhones, streaming and all the rest, where you can take hundreds of pictures and videos, and can send them to everyone with the tap of a finger.
The best questions and answers from our children
Over our many wild and wonderful years of raising children it was and always will be a day to day challenge to sit down and have a conversation with our kids about homework, chores, eating habits, cleanliness, clothes, and on and on. Whether we had to ask the same questions or get the point across three or four times, on many occasions it was the answer that usually gave us the biggest shock or chuckle, simply because it was always unrehearsed, priceless, and comes right from the heart. Whatever the case can some of you remember not that many years ago when Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby made a fortune from their hilarious and long-standing television hit shows Kids say the darndest things. and The Cosby Kids. Here are just a few of those great answers from out of the mouths of babes.
• God made mothers because she is the only one who knows where the band aids are, how to clean the house, and to help us get born. How did God make mothers? He used a little dust just like the rest of us and with his magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring he made my mom just the same as me, but with bigger parts.
• What are all mothers made of? They are made of clouds, angels, and everything nice in the world, with just a little dab of grumpy. Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom? Because we are related and my mom knew when I arrived that she would like me more than anyone else.
• My Grandma said that she finally married my Grandpa because he makes the best spaghetti in the world, but now she’s getting to old to do much with him anymore. What would it take to make your mom perfect? On the inside she’s already perfect, but on the outside I would get her some more modern clothes and I would dye her hair blue.
• What do you think is the difference between moms and dads? Moms work at work and at home and dads just work at work and then find some excuse to sneak off and play golf. Moms don’t spank very hard, they don’t snore, they make the best cookies, and they know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
• If you could make some changes in your mom what would they be? She has those invisible eyes in the back of her head as well as this weird thing about keeping our room clean, so I would get rid of those, and then I would make her a little smarter so that she would know that it was my little brother who always makes all the mess.
• While babysitting one day grandma and grandpa were telling their tiny grand-daughter that way back then when they were kids they used to skate outside on the pond, had a neat swing made out of a tire hanging from a big tree in the front yard, rode our ponies, and picked wild raspberries in the woods. After taking this all in the wide-eyed precious little girl uttered, ‘I sure wish that I had gotten to know you both sooner.’
No matter what age we all may be or whatever each day may bring our way, we know that all of our kids and grand-children are very precious, so lets hug them and love them and have them over at every opportunity. Let’s really hope that spring is just around the corner, so stay positive and have a great week, all of you.