No One Ever Told Us That: Money and Life Lessons for Young Adults

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

RAISING CHILDREN

This will be a short chapter but a very important one. Many of you reading this already have children, or eventually, will have them. If you don't, chances are you have nephews, nieces, or godchildren and can observe, from a loving distance, how they're being raised. Mostly, when viewing others’ children we tend to be critical. With one's own kids, at a certain age, when they're out of the parents’ home, we can see and understand everything. But, once they're out, we cannot do a damn thing about it.

I was a counselor at several camps in Maine from late high school till early college days. It was a great summer job and freewheeling in the days when parents did not hover. They actually believed the camps would do a great job with their children for eight weeks. And everyone would get a vacation from one other. Virtually everyone I knew growing up had this experience, and loved it.

Well, times change. So do revolutions: analog to digital, the characters, and the fads. But human nature is immutable; it never changes.

I have three children, two boys and a girl, and five grandchildren. I think the best single piece of advice I could give you on child rearing is to be consistent.

What do I mean by this? Partly to say that you cannot always be best buddies to your kids. There are times when you have to be a parent, an adult, with a pecking order in the house that starts with the grown-ups and descends to the kids.

Aside from consistency, always try to ...