One of my favorite lines in the movie Mission Impossible is when Ethan Hunt was given his next mission, and Ethan said it was going to be difficult, the mission commander said, "Mr. Hunt, this isn't mission difficult, it's mission impossible, difficult should be a walk in the park for you.I feel like being a good Father should be on Mission Impossible.
Think about retaining employment, matching the hours your peers work, making time to have a working relationship with your wife, competing with the TV and Sony Playstation for your children's time and admiration, being faithful to your wife when sex is so readily prevalent and advertised, and raising children in a society that is completely geared to guide them to destruction. Yes, I think it is that bad. Can't you just hear the theme music? Difficult, very, but this isn't Mission Difficult it is Mission Impossible and if Ethan Hunt can do it, so can we.
As a Father of two daughters, I believe that a large part of my mission is to get my daughters safely to their wedding day. At that point, some young man takes over meeting her every need, or at least he better, that is my plan, I doubt that it is his. Another thing that I believe is my daughter will eventually compare every boyfriend to me. My mission should I choose to accept it, is to make it as difficult for some little boy with turd for brains to get involved in her life. Difficult? No, make it impossible! Since she will be a tough to deal with, and a not listening teenager the only way to accomplish this is to set a subconscious high standard in her world now. How do you do this? Be the type of husband you want your daughter to marry. Is this going to be difficult? Very, but this isn't Mission Difficult, it's Mission Impossible and difficult is a walk in the park.
Between my neighbor and I we have four daughters and we have on occasion discussed that when it comes time for our daughters to date we would conveniently be together cleaning our guns, discussing our previous jail time, or being generally mean and intimidating. I remember one father telling me how me made his daughter's suitors leave $20 behind, it was returned when the young man returned the daughter home before curfew, if not, it cost him 20 bucks. I thought that was a creative idea but not sure I am comfortable with it.You might want to consider these rules for dating, see this link;
www.geocities.com/heartland/hills/3456/h_rulesdating.html
Or you could require an application to date your daughter, see this link;
www.wilk4.com/humor/humorp3.htm
Unfortunately I don't think that my wife will allow the rules or the application to be discussed with the potential boyfriend (aka Turd for Brains). I would guess my daughter won't like it either but she doesn't get an opinion on this matter. This leaves me with only on option left, to be on the date with them. Now get this, I am not as crazy as you all might think. I don't really mean physically be on the date, I mean subconsciously. What type of man do you want your daughter to marry? Answer that question and that is the type of husband you need to be, simple. If you want it ok in your daughter's mind for that potential boyfriend to be a drinker, this Bud's for you, a smoker, then by all means, be a Marlboro Man, a drug addict, then go ahead, blow the snow (I am not talking about your driveway). Those are mostly easy for the readers of this blog, but ask yourself these questions, do I want my daughter to be a maid? Then it is ok for you to not do house work, how about is it ok for your future son in law to yell at you daughter? If so, then you may yell at your wife. Is it going to be ok for your son in law to ignore your grandchildren? Congratulations, you don't need to engage in your children's life. I have a million of them, poor money manger, not physically fit, smoke; what you allow in yourself, your daughter will allow in her husband. Take this time to review how you treat your wife, if she were your daughter what would change? One thing for sure, you would. I know I have.
Because my plan to dive into my daughter's subconscious and set the high water mark for all these young men to meet is the only possible way to actually be on the date with her. Not only when she is a teenager but into her twenties, thirties or however long it may take. I may not even be alive, but I will be there watching his every move. The application and rules will be imprinted on my daughters mind and on her heart. And yes, there might be a time when she does date a turd for brains and it might take some time for her to flush him down, but eventually, she will know, not all turds rise to the top.
Good day Mr Hunt. Your mission, whether you accept it or not, involves making any potential suitor of your daughter's hand meet a very high standard of respect and love. You may select any two team members, but it is essential that the third member of your team be your wife. She is a civilian, and a highly capable professional Mother. You have eighteen years to accomplish this mission. As always, should any member of your team be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. This message will self destruct in five seconds.
Be intentional, be engaged, be interactive, be a Red Fox Father.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Somebody's Watching Me
First let me say this about "Another Brick in the Wall", your wife is not secretly talking to me, I am not reading your mail, and I do not live in your attic. Of all the posts that I have done this one rates second behind "You Can't Handle the Truth" for comments, emails, and phone calls. If you feel like Brick was for you, it was, it was for me too. We are all building walls, just make sure that you spend some time tearing it down as well.
Now on to our regularly scheduled posts, enjoy-
When I first heard GEICO's new advertising campaign the business man came out in me. I couldn't help but think what a waste of money the new campaign was. The Gecko had such momentum, nationally known, all over billboards, I would guess they had little Gecko stuffed animals, key chains, coffee mugs, et al. Now, they have to change thousands of billboards, trinkets, production for radio, TV, print, etc. Yet, when they came out with a stack of money with eyeballs on it, it seemed to work, much to my amazement. I guess I conceded my original incorrect perception when an employee of mine came to work singing "Somebody's Watching Me" and then said, "that's just the money you could be saving with GEICO". When I heard this, I figured the new ad campaign was going to stick.
However, when I see the commercial with the music from Rockwell, Somebody's Watching Me, I can't help but think about when my kids were younger. Just in case you don't remember when your kids were young, every time you were dropping a deuce at home with small children, it seems like the children seek you out like a smart bomb heading towards a terrorist's bedroom window, they seek you out with laser like accuracy from 150 miles away, like a moth to a flame. The funny thing to me is it always seemed like the kids sense of smell was totally shot, but I digress.
Often when I am calling my son for a chore or to discipline I wonder if his sense of hearing is totally shot. Sometimes I think he is completely deaf, because he definitely has a unique ability to ignore me, so on several occasions I decided to check his hearing by saying something like, "cake" or "cookie" just to make sure that his hearing is okay, it is. My son had multiple ear infections as a baby so my concern for his hearing is genuine. My daughter though has the same situation going on. I can instruct her to her face while she is looking at me in the eyes and then ask her to repeat what I just said 5 seconds earlier and she has no idea.
Bottom line, I am worried about my children not listening to me.
One thing that I really found disturbing is when my daughter started snapping at people. It wasn't all the time but if her Mother or I felt like we needed to remind her of something she already knew, she would give an aggressive look and snap, "I KNOW THAT". My wife and I were confused, why does she do this? Where did she learn this from? Of course in my world, my children learn all of their bad behaviors from other children at school, never from home. So my wife and I coached her (see Life Coach), "honey, when somebody reminds you of something you already know, you don't have to answer so aggressively, just simply say, thank you for reminding me". Well the proverbial chicken came home to roost the other day when my wife, in an attempt to help, decided to remind me to take something with me on a trip. The first thing in my head, you guessed it, "I KNOW THAT", to my credit, I stopped the words just as my teeth were parting. A light of wisdom shone down on my head like when Moses parted the Red Sea, imagine angels singing in the background, indeed it was a miracle. Finally, I opted to use wisdom and I responded with, "thank you for reminding me". I was pleased with myself for not putting another brick in the wall, but it also was then I realized that my daughter picked up her little snappy attitude from me and not the heathens at her school. All this time she was just emulating me. I finally realized that I needed to be less worried about my children's inability to listen to me and concern myself more with what they see in me.
Red Fox Followers, I assure you, somebody is watching you, and it's not the money you could be saving with GEICO.
Click on the post title above and enjoy a little tune.
Be intentional, be engaged, be interactive, be a Red Fox Father.
Now on to our regularly scheduled posts, enjoy-
When I first heard GEICO's new advertising campaign the business man came out in me. I couldn't help but think what a waste of money the new campaign was. The Gecko had such momentum, nationally known, all over billboards, I would guess they had little Gecko stuffed animals, key chains, coffee mugs, et al. Now, they have to change thousands of billboards, trinkets, production for radio, TV, print, etc. Yet, when they came out with a stack of money with eyeballs on it, it seemed to work, much to my amazement. I guess I conceded my original incorrect perception when an employee of mine came to work singing "Somebody's Watching Me" and then said, "that's just the money you could be saving with GEICO". When I heard this, I figured the new ad campaign was going to stick.
However, when I see the commercial with the music from Rockwell, Somebody's Watching Me, I can't help but think about when my kids were younger. Just in case you don't remember when your kids were young, every time you were dropping a deuce at home with small children, it seems like the children seek you out like a smart bomb heading towards a terrorist's bedroom window, they seek you out with laser like accuracy from 150 miles away, like a moth to a flame. The funny thing to me is it always seemed like the kids sense of smell was totally shot, but I digress.
Often when I am calling my son for a chore or to discipline I wonder if his sense of hearing is totally shot. Sometimes I think he is completely deaf, because he definitely has a unique ability to ignore me, so on several occasions I decided to check his hearing by saying something like, "cake" or "cookie" just to make sure that his hearing is okay, it is. My son had multiple ear infections as a baby so my concern for his hearing is genuine. My daughter though has the same situation going on. I can instruct her to her face while she is looking at me in the eyes and then ask her to repeat what I just said 5 seconds earlier and she has no idea.
Bottom line, I am worried about my children not listening to me.
One thing that I really found disturbing is when my daughter started snapping at people. It wasn't all the time but if her Mother or I felt like we needed to remind her of something she already knew, she would give an aggressive look and snap, "I KNOW THAT". My wife and I were confused, why does she do this? Where did she learn this from? Of course in my world, my children learn all of their bad behaviors from other children at school, never from home. So my wife and I coached her (see Life Coach), "honey, when somebody reminds you of something you already know, you don't have to answer so aggressively, just simply say, thank you for reminding me". Well the proverbial chicken came home to roost the other day when my wife, in an attempt to help, decided to remind me to take something with me on a trip. The first thing in my head, you guessed it, "I KNOW THAT", to my credit, I stopped the words just as my teeth were parting. A light of wisdom shone down on my head like when Moses parted the Red Sea, imagine angels singing in the background, indeed it was a miracle. Finally, I opted to use wisdom and I responded with, "thank you for reminding me". I was pleased with myself for not putting another brick in the wall, but it also was then I realized that my daughter picked up her little snappy attitude from me and not the heathens at her school. All this time she was just emulating me. I finally realized that I needed to be less worried about my children's inability to listen to me and concern myself more with what they see in me.
Red Fox Followers, I assure you, somebody is watching you, and it's not the money you could be saving with GEICO.
Click on the post title above and enjoy a little tune.
Be intentional, be engaged, be interactive, be a Red Fox Father.
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