Pears grow on trees?

Over the weekend I took Mallory to the nursery with me to pick out some trees and ivy. As we walked around we were talking about an apple tree that I bought. (Granny Smith Apple Tree) She was amazed at what grew on trees; apples, pears, peaches, plums. At first I was a little surprised that she didn’t know that pears grew on trees. It seemed like basic information to me. Mallory is a smart 11 year old so why didn’t she know?

I can think of two reasons why she didn’t know, she never saw it before or she wasn’t paying attention when someone talked about it.

Then I started thinking about parents and kids. I have to confess that there have been times in my life where I was more self-absorbed. In those times I was unaware of what was going on in my kid’s lives. Knowing that Griffin wants to be a Jedi when he grows up isn’t life changing information. Knowing that Mallory had a little trouble talking to a couple girls at a new school won’t affect the world. Knowing that Olivia considers herself a social butterfly but her best friend Spam only talks to a few friends isn’t earthshaking information. But it’s their life and it’s important to them.

This is just like what grows on trees. The only reason that I don’t know information about my kids is that I never saw my kids or I wasn’t paying attention.

If I discount what’s important to them I start a chain reaction of uncaring parenting. How will they treat THEIR children? They will treat them as I have treated them. That scares me. What will they look for in a mate? They will look for a man like me or a woman like their mother. I don’t know about you but I want to set the bar high. I want the man my girl’s marry to be BETTER than me. I want my kids to be better parents than me. We spend time and money teaching our kids how to earn more than us but it’s more important to teach them parenting and mate selection.

Take a little time, turn away for the tv or computer and ask your little ones a few questions about their day. Talk to them. Listen to them. Trust me it’s more important than any report you have to finish.