Some Things I'll Teach My Children (Updated)

I have a long list of items to teach my children but here is an incomplete list of things that I want to teach them.

  1. Laugh, love and learn always and forever.
  2. Never forget to hold your friends and family close to you.
  3. A good hug can change your day. Everyone needs a hug. We all need to touch and be held. My thoughts on being shomer negiah later.
  4. The majority opinion is not always right nor the most moral/ethical.
  5. Some things are worth fighting for and some are not. The hard part is discerning which is which.
  6. You can never read too many books but you must always supplement your reading/education by doing.
  7. Travel and interact with the world around you.
  8. Learn to speak more than one language.
  9. Play a team sport and learn how to be a team player.
  10. Understand that life is a journey and that half the fun is indeed getting there.
  11. Life is filled with moments, some good and some bad. Just remember this too shall pass.
  12. If saying goodbye doesn't hurt than whatever it was probably wasn't worth much.
  13. Take pictures of friends, places and loved ones. They'll help preserve some great memories.
  14. Try not to grow up too quickly. Childhood is but a short time.
  15. Look for magic.
  16. Remember that you may not always agree with your parents but they also are looking out for your best interests.
Originally posted here.

4 comments:

Otter Thomas said...

Good list. I wish someone had told me to travel and interact with the world around me. I was too "sheltered" early in life.

Jack Steiner said...

Thanks O.T. I think that part of being a parent is trying to help our kids do the things that we didn't get to do.

With any luck, they get a better life than we had. That is not to say that all of us have bad lives.

But isn't that part of being a parent, the effort to try and make things better for them.

Sire said...

Strange you should mention hugs. One of our schools was actually trying to ban them as they thought it would lead to something else. Make you wonder doesn't it?

Jack Steiner said...

Sire,

I have never understood that. It reminds me of an old joke;

A young couple, of a conservative Jewish persuasion are anticiptaing getting married, so they go to their rabbi for instruction. After the instruction, the young man addresses the rabbi: ‘Well, Rabbi, I know that in our sect, after the ceremony when there is music and dancingy, it is customary for the men to dance with the men, and the women to dance with the women. But this, after all, the 21st century — a new, enlightened age — and I would like your permission to be able to dance with my wife.” The rabbi responds: “No, no, no! It is immodest for the man to dance with a woman.” Now the young man is concerned about what IS allowed after marriage. So he asks the rabbi, hesitantly, “Well, I suppose that after marriage is it okay have sex?” The rabbi quickly responds: “Of course! It is a mitzvah (a blessing). To have children.” The young man asks “Any position?” The rabbi responds: “You’re inferring that there is more than one? But never mind, it is between you and your wife.” The young man asks: “Woman on top?” The rabbis, with eyes widened, says: “This is an education for me; but, yes, it is between you and your wife!” The young man asks: “And can we do it in an airplane, in flight, in the lavatory, in order to join the “MILE-HIGH-CLUB”?” The rabbi answers: “I am learning so much from this, but, yes, it is between you and your wife. But make sure to close the door of the lavatory!” Then the young man asks: “And can we do it standing up?” “NO!” says the rabbi, “you may NOT doing it standing up!” “Why not?” says the young man. The rabbi says: “Because it could lead to dancing!”

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