Doing Drugs and Kissin' with Tongue...

I think that one of the biggest responsibility of a dad is being able to teach. My father was and is a great provider, but let's just say he was a little light in the teaching department. Oh sure he had his ways, you know like slappin' the shit out of you when you messed up. But that was after the fact. He didn't exactly teach as we went along.

I try to make it a point to teach my kids. To talk to them about life and the decisions we make along the way. 

Growing up and doing drugs

This past weekend I had to run out to get gas for the lawnmower so the oldest clown went with me. It's about a 15 minute drive into town, and I figured it was a perfect opportunity to talk.  No not The Talk, God No. I just mean a time to talk just the two of us.

She's finishing up the fifth grade, and knows way more than I did at her age. She's smart, and beautiful, and it won't be much longer before the pressures of school start to creep into her daily life.

We talked about the pressures kids face in school. Mostly about doing drugs and trying to be popular, things like that. My biggest fear in life, along with spiders, is for one of my clowns to get caught up in drugs. It happens. It happens to good kids with great parents, and great childhoods. And it scares me to death. So we talked about it. Then we took the long way home so we could rock out to some J.T on the radio. Hey, I like a little Suite & Tie, every now and then.

Kissin' with Tongue

We took the clowns out to hunt some mushrooms this past weekend. It was nice out, and while we didn't have much luck with the mushrooms we did have a nice day as a family doing something together. No ipods, no earbuds, and nothing plugged in. Just us and the woods. At one point while the  boy and I were waiting on the ladies to finish in the bathroom he looks over at me and says, Dad, that would be really gross if while you were kissin' somebody, they put their tongue in your mouth.

Father Knows Best

 I love being a dad. I love having conversations, real conversations with my clowns.

With my oldest I told her the truth. How it won't be long until her friends are trying drugs to impress people; boys. And how she would be faced with hard decisions. How I trusted her to make the right choices. How proud of her I was for who she already was, and I knew there was so much more to come. I told her how her mom and I would always be there to help guide her and she could always talk and count on us.

To the boy. I simply told him yes, yes it would be.