Fatherhood

This is advice that Bill Gates gave at a high school about things they did not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teaching has created a generation of children with no concept of reality and how this concept sets them up for failure in real life. RULE 1 Life is not fair ... get used to it. RULE 2 The world will not care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. RULE 3 You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both. RULE 4 If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure. RULE 5 Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity. RULE 6 If you mess up...

For those that have been enjoying the humor in my posts ... sorry, this one's more serious. I've been thinking about what I need to do, as Patrick's father, when he gets older and transitions into a young adult, then to manhood. I need to be a role model .  It is my firm suspicion that there nothing more important to raising a responsible young man than modeling the behavior I hope he will embrace when he becomes a man.  Patrick will learn more from watching how I react and behave in given circumstances than he will from almost anything I tell him.  Jen pointed out the other day that I can get quite irritable with other drivers ... to the point of getting vocal (yes, I can yell and scream at times).  I definitely need to change that type of behavior, before he learns it from me. I need to teach him how to  properly  plan for the future .  Too many men go through life just reacting to what is happening around them ... I know I spent a lot o...