Tag: family

A Happy Rambling Father’s Day

Right now as I hang out in front of the grill with the smell of cooking ribs I think about how thankful I am for my family.  That I have a loving caring wife, a wonderful daughter, these two are the reasons I’m a Father and celebrated today. My Dad and my father-in-law, along with some help(yeah that’s you Mom and Jazmina), did a good job raising me, my wife and sister-in-law. 

Both of these men have given me a Godly example of how to raise my daughter, provide and care for my family. I know I’ve said it numerous times before but I am so proud that my dad taught me things growing up that I still use today. I can build things, I can fix my own car, I can repair things in the house.  Growing up my dad wasn’t the wordiest, still isn’t but, he knew how to get to the point. Most of our must have father and son conversations can be summed up with ” don’t be an idiot.”  He always wanted better for me, and made me know that if I wanted something, I was going to work hard for it. 

Too many times today, we see fathers and families that just have children. It’s a world of I take my kid here and there I go to their games, I participate in their life. Participating in their life is not the same as being in their life. There are too many stories on the news today of young men, going out doing unspeakable things.  As a father, I want to instill in my child that I am here for her no matter what she does. I am also here to provide corrective measures as necessary. 

Too many times we over-compensate for our work schedules, or for the things we feel our dads did wrong. We take the I’ll do it differently approach to the extreme. All kids get a trophy now, everyone makes the team. We set kids up for failure. As kids we had to fight our own battles. If you lost you tried harder next time, you learned what you did wrong and fixed it for the next time. 

So I’ll end with this. Father’s be a great daddy today. Hold your kids tight, let them see you showing love to their mother, and be the daddy that they deserve.  

father in law bday
Be goofy
  
father nails
Be willing to get your nails done
   

by corymcglone

Be above the mix…

This past week, I had one of those moments where the most random thing just sparked an idea that I couldn’t shake.  “You need to be above the mix…”  I heard this in two different episodes of one of our favorite new shows, Empire.  Both times she was listening to a new track, and this was her suggestion, “be above the mix,” “Don’t hide behind the music.”

I just keep thinking of this in real life.  So many times in life we hide behind, what we want others to see and hear.  We are scared to stand out and be different.  To some comparing life to music production and songs, won’t make any sense, to others it’s going to click like it did for me.  When you listen to a number of today’s top songs, you will hear a lot of the same beats, you will hear the beats better than the lyrics, you hear words not lines.  Today songs come out, many sound the same, sale incredibly great, but the meaning is not there.  Songs are made to give people what they want to hear, they give that great beat to move to.

Many of us live our lives this exact same way.  We hide behind what we know others want to see or hear, we spend so much time doing what others want, we forget ourselves.  It’s the people who step up,  go above the mix, those that let their voice be heard, that speak clearly and with meaning and purpose, that are remembered.  These are the people who make a difference.

Are you willing to be above the mix and not hide behind the idea of who you are, but truly be you?  Are you willing to be the parent that says, my kid isn’t going to do that or I’m a parent not a friend?  Are you willing to be that husband that actually listens to his wife, that does the laundry and the dishes to give your wife a break?  Are you willing to be that friend, that slaps your best friend back to reality when they are just being plain stupid?  Are you willing to be that student, that stops the bully, that sets the example for the rest of the team, for the rest of the class?

Take just one day, and put yourself above the mix, put yourself above where others think you should be, and then prove why you should be there.  If you’re stuck in a hole, is up to you to grab the rope.  If your voice is far below the drum machine and the bass, you have to choose to move that fader up.  Others can put the equipment there, others can help only as much as you let them.  It is up to you to make the call to get it moving.

by corymcglone

Have we failed them?

When it comes to our kids, I know that any of us would do anything for them.  We try to protect them in every way that we can, we try to give them a better life than we had.  In doing so, we have raised a generation of wimpy vultures.  Bullies today are not the same as bullies back in the day.  Back when I was in school if having to deal with a bully, it stopped at the end of the school day, and it was one maybe two people.  Now, you have groups of “mean kids”, that will pick on kids at school and then it becomes cyber bully time.  It no longer stops, even the kids that aren’t bullies at school become bullies behind a keyboard.  We all know that kids can be mean, and we also know that kids discover these behaviors from somewhere.

That is why no matter how much you want to blame the schools, the administration, coaches, etc., it starts at home.  Parents we need to be involved with our kids.  We need to be in our kids lives, not just being around, not just running them to their events, but truly involved.  We need to know who their friends are, we need to know what they are doing when they are out.  We also need to know who and what they are online.  With the illusion that our kids need to be themselves, and that they need to have their privacy, so that they are free to be themselves, we lose our kids to the world.  When as parents, we lose touch with our kids, or we excuse ourselves from their life, we have no right to blame others for what our kids do or don’t do.  Now don’t think that I’m saying to go read your kids diary or journal, but we do need to know what is going on in their lives.  Spend time talking to them, they aren’t going to be excited about this, but communication is key.

At the end of the day, our kids take after us. If we don’t parent our children, how can we ask others to do so.  We have to set a proper example for our children in all that we do.  If you find yourself always posting negative comments online, especially when it has nothing to actually do with you, or you never have anything very positive to say about anything, you might be encouraging your child to be a bully, both online and in real life.  If you are talking about things with your kids, and setting a proper example, maybe we can stop some of this senseless violence, bullying, and suicide among young people in our world.

by corymcglone