Influences on our kids

With 2 young boys I am always conscious of the adults that have an influence on their lives.  Outside our extended family I think our boys have some wonderful people who provide fantastic education, leadership, love and humour.  Out football club has some wonderful fathers who care for our kids and give them wonderful examples of how to treat each other.  With Mike travelling so much this year, it has been so nice for the boys to have these dads to look up to on our cold Saturday mornings.  With high-fives and beaming smiles, the boys run out and play their best and look for recognition from these few dads, and they never disappoint.

We also have a number of great friends who provide great role models to our kids.  Whether it be healthy lifestyles, great work ethics, or just a fun person to play with, they are all very important to us as our boys lives are being shaped in these early years.

It therefore, really upsets me when I have made a choice to have my child in a particular persons' company and that person then lets me down with their behaviour and attitude.  When choosing a school, it is very difficult to not be swayed by the people you meet and the feeling they give you about that community.  The problem is that you cannot rely on those people to be there for the long term.  When they are replaced, you can only hope that the replacement is of the same mould. 

We are in the 'lucky' position that we are now moving and will have a whole new group of people entering out kids lives - hopefully nice ones.  It is easy for me to say now that I would have moved our boys from our school if we had stayed but it just isn't that simple to take your children out of an environment because of one person.  If a person is incapable of admitting when they are wrong, then I don't think they have a place in our small school.  We rely on these people to teach our kids that making mistakes is the way we learn and that you need to be humble when you're wrong and take responsibility for those actions. 

I wish all my fellow parents - good luck with this one and applaud our footie dads !!   xxxx