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Show School and Home fcp 1 by Dr. Daryl J. McCarty Executive Secretary T. Utah Education Association Not long ago a young father died, and a friend commented that the father's eight and ten-year-old sons "probably won't remember him longer than a few months." What the friend meant was that the father really didn't get to know his sons. Dad was too busy. He was a compulsive worker, laboring many extra hours to pay the bills that kept his little family together. His busy-ness robbed him of close ties with his wife and children. Sadly, that man wasn't unusual. Too many of us just don't have enough time to get close to our children. One father who attended the funeral was shocked by the idea that he, too, might be forgotten by his three children soon after the flowers wilted on his grave. So he did something about it. He began taking one or more of the children with him when he jumped in the car to run an errand. During those brief journeys, he learned the things that were on his children's minds. When a daughter took up tennis, Dad did too. When his son developed problems with math, Dad got up an hour early to help him. When the kids helped to build a teen center, Dad joined the action. When the center burned down one evening, he went there with the kids and even wept with them. Sharing the grimness of that disaster brought the family together in a new kind of closeness. When the son reached high school age, he wasn't large enough for most sports. So he became manager of the football foot-ball team. Every time there was a game, Mom, Dad and the two sisters made it their business to be there. They grieved together about the losses and struggled with hoarseness after the victories. Kids who are close to their parents are often successful in school. And in life. These children tend to remember their parents long after they're gone, too. |