Growing up Cory

I can't really think of a time when my father directly taught me a lesson. Meaning, from what I recall, the lessons I learned were from making bad decisions and suffering the physical consequences after.

It's not easy raising children, I know that now, but I can remember a time from my childhood--and when I say childhood, I mean around seven--that I swore I would never grow up to be like my father. That makes me sad; to think that I didn't want to be like him at such a young age. Children should want to be like their parents. But I didn't, and that scares me.

When incidents like yesterday happen, when we have to punish our kids by taking things away, they make me question my abilities as a father. I want my kids to remember their childhood fondly. I want my kids to make the right decisions throughout life, but also if/when they have their own children.

Frederic admitted to me today that he lied to me yesterday. He's the honest one in the family. Honest to a fault. So honest that I knew he was lying as it happened. And that's what frustrated me the most.

If I lied to my dad, I knew that eventually telling the truth would be just as painful as sticking to the fib. So I most often kept the truth hidden.

I want my children to want to be like me. The good things about me, at least.

Frederic's admission of guilt actually made me happy. It made me think we might be doing the right things. It made me think that maybe, someday, he'll want to be like his dad.

Maybe.