It's been over two years since I've posted to this blog. As a single mom doing 100% of this parenting thing on my own, I've gotten a little too busy at times, and my kids have grown up right before my eyes! They are now almost 15 and 16 years old, and I've only got a few years left to spend with them as "children." The reason I'm posting today is because of the people who don't appreciate that importance.
I have been *triggered.*
Today in a facebook group which may as well be called "Selfish Leftist Single Moms" because I think there might be three conservatives in it, a woman posted asking how she can find rides for her children after school to her boyfriend's house because she and her boyfriend have been talking about how they can spend more time together.
Facepalm.
As if it's not bad enough that marriages are falling apart, we have parents who are too busy pursuing their own relationships to even drive their own kids to be stuck at the dude's house! How about figuring out how you can spend more quality time with the kids? How about figuring out what activities they might want to do after school, or do those activities with them? If you aren't seeing your kids all day because they are in school, WHAT are you doing as a parent?
It is one thing if you have to work two jobs to pay the bills. It is completely another to take time away from your own kids for some random dude, or to put your relationship before your kids. I don't even care if they like him. Chances are, the relationship won't last. It will be another man who came in and out of their lives, all the while they have been raised by the schools and the internet, because they have no bond with their primary parent. Kids have gone from spending the majority of their days with family, to the majority of their days being away from their family, or ignored because of technological advances such as iPhones, internet, and Netflix.
I've seen parents lost in their own phones at restaurants. If you want to know what's wrong with kids today, use that phone to look it up! They are being pushed aside, ignored, replaced, and expected to suck it up when they are neglected because Mom or Dad wants to put themselves first (which seems to happen a lot these days). Of course on the other end of the spectrum there are kids who rule the roost at their homes and are given everything their little hearts' desire, and that's another post for another day.
Spend time with your kids.