@Threadcutter308 - any advice on raising girls appreciated.....
I have 2 girls and a boy to raise up right. Blended family, 2 are mommas and my daughter.
The youngest is gonna be the biggest stress for sure.
Girls are both darn cute with blonde hair/big blue eyes and are going to cause me to need another safe full of shotguns in a few years.
Youngest one looked at me the other night and told me I was mean because I let her older brother have a little ice cream after he finished thirds on his supper.
She refused to clean her plate, so no treat.....
Vodka, lots of Vodka and an ample supply of tongue depressors to bite down hard on. Looking back, the least of our problems were with boys. Girls are going to find/date boys that they want, not who you want. Get used to that. You can only hope that they do a halfway decent job of finding a good guy, or at least one that has some potential.
We put everything into our daughter and made many sacrifices, to which I would do all over again. We are in western Washington/greater Seattle area and surprise, surprise, she turned into a flaming liberal with mommy issues. Our daughter's mommy issues stem from the fact that she and her mother are very similar in temperament and personality. They both are very competitive and hate to lose.
What little that
@Veer_G has said about his experience with one of his sons on the Hide, it sounds like we have had similar experiences, at least relative to outside liberal influences.
My best advice is to remain active with them for as long as possible and do your best to instill traditional values in them. Once they hit 14 or 15 (perhaps younger
), they will start changing and want their contemporaries in their lives more than their parents. Get used to that as well. Once they start wanting/trying to make their own decisions for themselves (and they will), treat/respond to them on that level. If they want to act like an adult, treat/respond to them as though they are. I think they tend to respect you more. You will find plenty of opportunity to educate them on the pro's and con's of their decisions, but you will also find that some of the decisions they want to make are above their pay grade at the time. Those (proper) decisions that are at their pay grade should be rcognized as such. If you recognize their (good) decision making to them, they will view you in a less adversarial manner. Conversely, tell them when they screw up. And, explain the details. Don't just drop the iron hammer.
You'll come out of it on the other side and if you're lucky, you'll emerge relatively unscathed. That's if you're lucky. If you get some bumps, bruises and cuts along the way, it just goes with the territory, don't worry too much about it. I have seen some parents that have had absolutely zero issues with their kids, but they are definitely in the minority, at least around here.
At this point in time, relative to our daughter, my wife and I are living for ourselves. We put in our time, we invested everything we had, we worked our asses off, now it's our turn. With you being fairly newly wedded, you need to make sure that you are taking care of each other. My wife and I were lucky enough to figure that out a long time ago. We are best friends, lovers, husband/wife, partners and we will be with each other forever. No one comes ahead of my wife. No one.
