Paul Harvey's Hopes for Kids

Friend sent me an email from her realtor business with the following enclosed:

Paul Harvey's Hopes for Kids

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated.

I hope you’re taught to make your own bed, mow the lawn and wash the family car.

And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

I hope at least one time you can see puppies born and your dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him.

I hope you get to walk to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

And when you talk back to your mother I hope you learn what Ivory soap tastes like.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it. And if a friend offers you drugs, I hope you realize he is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

These things I wish for you, tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness.

It’s how we learn to appreciate life.
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Nice, huh?

 

All very touching except the beer one which I strongly disagree with!

 

This is so true. Kids need to learn the hard way, like I did, and not have everything handed to them.

I printed it out and made copies for my kids to read. See what they say.
Thanks for sharing this.
Gal

 

Maybe you should remove then inappropriate signature about the gynaecologist before handing this to your kids Gal

 

Yeah, really....

 

I don't see any signatures, so I am ok.......lol

Thanks, though.

Gal

 

Harvey didn't write it, and this version has been modified. The original was written by Lee Pitts, and was included in his book "People Who Live At The End Of Dirt Roads". Harvey read it on one of his broadcasts, and gave proper credit to the author. http://www.snopes.com/glurge/wishfor.htm

It is a good set of wishes though.

 

Life's all about experiences, both good and bad, and learning is a continuum throughout life.

I dunno if kids need to get in fights, have black eyes, and drink beer, though. But the sentiment is there, I guess.

 

what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger

 

thats absolute cr*p!! having had what passes as a hard life, i can honestly say its the good things that made me stronger.

the people that loved and cared for me, not those that abused me.
the successes, not the failures.
the rainbows, not the rain.
the times i have been solvent, not the times ive been scared of the next bill arriving.
the supporters, not the saboteurs.
the friends, not the foes.
the times of health, not the times of illness.
the lives of those i love, not the deaths.

i could go on, but i think you get the point.

i wish nothing but good for my offspring, and if i could arrange it they would never have a hard day in their lives.

much aloha

 

Sorry, but paul harvey is a old bigot. And is probably just following orders.

 

i have to confess that i dont even know who paul harvey is.

 

As much as I would love for my kids to grow up with only good things, it isn't reality. I don't want them to think the world is all great. Then, when they go off on their own, they'll get hit hard.

They need to learn responsibility and that everything won't be handed to them. We live on a hobby farm, and they all have to help feed dogs, cats, etc...A little work never harmed anyone.

They have been hurt and humiliated growing up with a handicapped sister. They have seen other kids be very very cruel. I cried with them as they came home from school and told me what kids were saying. But you know what? It has helped them to accept and understand others who are different.

This past week my 16 year old attended the funeral of a boy she knew and liked. He had a head-on collision. This was very very hard for her.............and for me. He was 18. As difficult as this week has been, it is a reality. As much as it sucks, it is.
If there is anything good that could come from this, I would hope she would learn to appreciate life, family, and her friends more.

While I don't agree with everything on that list, kids do learn from "bad" things as well as good.

Getting off soap box now.

Gal

 

what makes people think that hardship teaches responsibility? what about 'noblesse oblige' ? do i have to be starving to understand famine? or brown to understand predjudice? or cold to understand hyperthermia? no of course i dont.

 

I am not disagreeing with you laurie. Not at all.
Is my opinion, and my opinion only, that kids need a rounded life. Good and bad to learn from and grow.

Mine still are fortunate to have their grandparents, and a great-grandfather. They love to go visit and listen to him talk about the old days, etc...They absorb it all.


We can't live their lives for them. Only try to teach them what is right and wrong. And hope they make the right decisions.
We all want that, I think.


Gal

 

Hardship teaches how to deal with hardship. That can't be a bad thing.

 

i appreciate that gal. and i agree that children need a rounded life. i just think the best way to give them that is with love and acceptance, and encouragement, and the knowledge that they have a soft place to land. i too have been down the 'handicapped child' road. my other children were deprived of my attention, and equal witness to the long slow painful suffering of their sister. they learned responsibility..sure, but the cost was way too high! my youngest was too young to have learned anything from it, and i have still managed to teach him without that heartbreak. I'm sorry to hear of your painful week, and i hope it does help your child to value her own family. I'm not sure what you think that poor boys death is going to teach his though. much aloha to you and if you EVER need someones ear, i will be there for you.

 

the point being that no hardship means you dont have to know how to deal with it.

 

I think that "no hardship" is a fantasy. I guess we disagree, but I think that there is nothing wrong with gaining experience from both sides of the coin.

 

well, lets think about 'hardship',

abuse begets anger, resentment and rebellion.
sexual abuse begets promiscuity and self hatred.
dishonesty begets distrust.
prejudice begets more prejudice.
poverty begets the loss of self respect.
illness weakens the system.
death makes one question the vary existence of a benevolent GOD.
etc. etc.
exactly what 'hardship' do you think makes you stronger?

 

And when kids reach adulthood, and bosses don't care about their self-esteem, only about their work, and creditors and landlords don't care about excuses, only about payments, kids that had NO hardships, challenges, or failures growing up don't know how to deal with them.

Not starvation/near death hardships, but learning about failure by sometimes failing, and about competing, because you must compete in the real world. Learning to lose gracefully and keep going on.... the list goes on...

Schools no longer emphasize competition or allow kids to fail, generally. If you don't teach them, they'll not learn it before the real world slaps them in the face with it, when it's sink or swim.

 

i think we are talking about two different things. there is life, and there is hardship.
everybody fails occasionally, but thats not hardship. work is not hardship. (lack of work is!)
being in debt can be your own fault, or it can be nothing to do with you.
winning encourages, failure discourages.
and yes the human spirit overcomes, but with a price.
(and yes the school system is 'softer'. my children were not beaten, humiliated, or abused. does that make them somehow less a person?)
the world does not 'slap everybody in the face'. are you saying it should?