My Children and the Joy They Bring Me

Some days I feel like I am the luckiest person in the world because of my children. I am so blessed to have such wonderful children because I always had the fear I wouldn't be able to be the best mom I could be. Growing up, my parents got divorced when I was 7 years old. My father had a drinking problem and my mother sometimes I felt like she was more concerned with her boyfriend then with me and my sister. Growing up they had different ways of raising us so it was hard to adjust to the different rules. My father had a tendency to go out to the bars ocassionally if he wasn't drinking at home. He lived more of a loose lifestlye and would take us out on our grandmothers boat to the beach and pretty much lived life like it was a party. Meanwhile, my mother lived more of a quieter lifestyle where we almost never went anywhere. Raising my own children, I try to be strict but fair and still have fun. My son being 8 years old now, I try to let him do things some parents might have a small problem with. Nothing major, I just let him stay up a little later than most as long as he gets up and gets ready for school without a problem. The crazy thing is, my son loves school so much, he is almost always up atleast 20 to 30 minuets before me no matter what time he goes to bed. My daughter is 4, and she has the attitude of a 16 year old. I guess something that comes with having an older brother. She's a tough cookie. I very rarely see her cry, she handles things very good including being told no. She is a lot smarter than most 4 year olds that I know. She knows chinese and spanish, she can count backwards from 10, she can listen to a song and remember the chorus and as she listens more and gets the words. It's the biggest joy imaginable. I keep my son in baseball, he just loves to play. It was my biggest joy this past spring, when coach put him at catcher and he not only loved it, he did so good for a first timer. My daughter, will be starting dance classes real soon. She likes ballet, and I am thinking later down the line she will work on different styles of dance. I definately will help my children persue their love for either sport or dance because it makes me so very happy, and they bring me so much joy.