It's what you said...

In 20 years…I won’t remember what you bought me, I’ll remember what you said to me. Money isn’t everything. As a child, it may sometimes seem as though having the “perfect this” or the “exact that” is the answer to all your problems. The thinking is “I’ll be good enough when I have the latest video game/toy/entertainment system ect.” In looking back, I couldn’t tell you exactly what toys I actually got, or what purchases my mom sacrificially retrieved so I could feel cool at school. Nope. I mean I’m sure I got lots of toys and stuffed animals as a child, but the specifics are a blur. What my mother SAID to me, on the other hand, is clear as glass. See the thing is, as we grow up the things we tend to remember most about our parents are the lessons they taught us and the way they treated us, not the toys and tricks they bought us. As I write this, I am trying to remember the coolest present I ever got for my birthday from either of my parents…besides the obvious: car at 16, blah,blah,blah….nothing really jumps to mind. But ask me to tell what my parents have taught me about work ethic and humility and slightly more than a zillion thoughts come to mind. As parents, there must be an overwhelmingly strong urge to want to give your child the best of everything and anything--- and on the reverse side, a sinking feeling when your are not possibly able to do so. At this point, it is more important than ever to remember: children grow, and they outgrow things. But lessons? No, those are for life. Presents and gifts are nice, but those things are secondary, icing on the cake. The good stuff, the cream of the crop? Those can’t be found on a store shelf. They don’t have a price tag. And even if they did, it’d be ridiculously difficult to afford them.