January 16, 2012–Promises to Myself, Broken
When we are young, everything seems so simple and so clear. It may be pure ego, but I can’t accept the fact that I was wrong then–I just had a much different set of circumstances which actually made things easier, not only to do but also to plan and to understand. There was nothing to lose, my body was able to do whatever I asked of it, and there was an infinity in front of me in which I could correct any problems I might cause myself. As that infinity has shrunk to something less, something that seems now to have an end, the rules that I live my life by and that I expect everyone else should be able to live their life by have changed and as a result, I have broken lots of promises to myself. Below is that list–and, in italics, the realizations that made it impossible for me to keep them.
10. I will never yell at my children but will calmly and rationally explain things to them–children are completely irrational and make adults temporarily insane. Also, there is no way to calmly and rationally explain “Don’t hit the car with the shovel.”.
8. I will never pay anyone to do the things that I can do myself–lot’s of the things that I can do myself get put off for years because I have no time to do them.
7. I will never spend an entire day without doing something fun and entertaining–one word…..mortgage.
6. I will never wear particular clothes because someone else tells me I should–I wanted to run a company way more than I wanted to wear shorts.
5. I will never go more than a month without going fishing–I still haven’t figured this one out. I tell myself every month that I am going to go, but it just doesn’t happen.
4. I will never put “things” before my family–DON’T HIT THE CAR WITH THE SHOVEL!!!!
3. If there is something that I want, I won’t just tell people about it, I will actually buy it–it occurred to me that I would like to continue to buy at least some of the things that I want later in my life, and so I better put a little something aside.
2. I will never be too tired for “fun time” with my wife–just seems silly now, to both of us. If we only knew.
1. I will never offer unsolicited advice–we actually started a company DEVOTED to giving people advice, so……
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I think a lot of us can relate to your list. I hated Chinese school as a kid and swore I would never make me kids go, but here I am thinking about putting my daughter in Chinese school. However, I will make sure it is a structured curriculum unlike the one I was in (they assigned you by age, not level, so I had classmates fluent in Chinese already and it made me feel dumb!).
Funny how all that experience that our parents told us about actually does make a difference, huh? (Kinda stings how right they were way back when.)
Great list! And I laughed out loud about the shovel! Yep….sometimes you just have to YELL.
If nothing else, it gets their attention. They look at you as if YOU’RE insane, but at least they stop!
Oh my, I laughed so hard my husband is actually a bit jealous that I think you rock!
This is so true and so well written. Hope it is just shirt and you can at least compromise on the tie
Oh yes–I chose my field carefully. Ties are anathema in the live nursery biz!
Don’t hit the car with the shovel, classic.LOL
Unfortunately, there are dozens more classics where that came from
With #8, my husband has come to the conclusion that he pays for these things to be done by someone else, so that he has more time so that he can try and do more of #7!
Smart man!!
Number 10 made me laugh out loud. If only I had a calm, rational explanation for every crazy thing my boys shouldn’t do!
Lo lo lo love your list. The last point, bam!
Bahahahaha! Your list has me laughing so hard! Kids do drive parents insane!