Have you ever heard the story about the little boy who answered the phone call?
One day, the phone rang, and the little boy answered.
“May I speak to your parents?”
“They’re busy.”
“Oh. Is anybody else there?”
“The police.” Continue reading »
Jun 272011
In the State of Colorado, the law states that in order to operate a motor vehicle, you must first attend a week long course from an accredited driving school, as well as complete a driver education course consisting of behind the wheel training. I think that most would agree that this law is a good idea.
Luckily for my kids, I have not always lived by that belief, at least not 100%. Now before you rush to the phone to call the police on me please allow me to explain. You see my belief that kids (under the right circumstances) should be allowed to learn how to drive at 14 was ingrained into me at a young age. Growing up in Butte, Montana as one of five kids, you have a tendency to do things a little different. My friends and I would drive ourselves to drivers education and park a few blocks away so that we didn’t get caught. Now it’s not that I took the car without my parents permission, they just threw me the keys and said “don’t get caught”. Now, when you grow up in a smaller town, you have a tendency to know most everyone. I am sure that on more than one occasion I passed a cop who knew that I wasn’t 16 yet, but really didn’t care. I’m sure that he learned to drive the exact same way. In fact, it’s a true story is that when my mom was growing up, she used to get driven to the ski resort outside of town by Sheila Penaluna all the time. Oh, by the way did I mention that Sheila was 12 when she drove them? Go figure. Seriously, growing up in Butte is a little different, as anyone from Montana will attest too. So when it came time to get my kids ready for drivers education I did what came naturally, I put them in the car at 14 and said “let’s drive”.
Now Jack was easy. I really didn’t worry about his ability too much. Maybe it was because he was a boy, or maybe it was because he had a small battery operated jeep as a kid. It could have been the fact that he was quite accomplished at racing cars on his video game. I don’t really know why, all that I did know was that teaching him to drive was really not much of a worry to me. The first day I took him over to the streets of an undeveloped commercial project put him in the drivers seat and said lets go. He took to it like a southern boy to a NASCAR race. Now he is 17 and cruising all over the place in his 2000 GT Mustang, has had no accidents and only three tickets to show for it. I am so proud:) Continue reading »
“With everything that happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” Wayne Dyer
Over the years I have reflected back on this quote on more than one occasion. I have even sometimes wondered if the author was a single parent. During the the past eight years I have been through living with an addictive wife, a broken marriage, interventions, rehab. centers, a separation, a divorce, the death of my children’s mother, the death of their grandmother, the executor of two estates, an IRS audit (which I won), a failing business, the meltdown of my investments in the stock market, a depreciating home value, raising my children on my own 24/7, dealing with their grief, anxiety and fear issues while wondering when, or if, it will ever stop? So again I say to myself:
“With everything that happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” Continue reading »
So my blog last week I Think I’m Going To Be Single For Awhile…seemed to stir up a few comments from many of you. More than one person emailed, called or texted me with their thoughts about it. Half the people said “Well there goes some of your readers” and the other half said “Bill you just issued a challenge”. My daughter said “Dad you have commitment issues”. First I am sure that I did not lose many of my readers, and fortunately or unfortunately, no one has yet challenged me. In fairness to Michaela I decided to look up the definition of commitment issues. Wikipedia describes “The Fear of Commitment” as:
Fear of commitment in much popular literature refers to avoidance of long-term partnership and/or marriage but the problem is often much more pervasive, affecting school, work, and home life as well.
I don’t have any commitment issues. At one time I was committed to my marriage and my past relationships. I am committed to my children, my friends and my passions. I am committed to helping single parents succeed, my website, my future coaching program and webinars. I am committed to being honest, ambitious, positive and a good role model. I am committed to my beliefs, working out at the gym every day and believing in myself. I am even committed to believing that the right person will come into my life again. I don’t have any commitment issues! What I have are time management issues! Continue reading »
Jan 312011
It seems that I am always getting emails from people asking me what the secret to happiness is as a single parent? So many of these people are just plain unhappy being single as, a single parent. They seem to believe that they need to be with someone in order to validate their life. Then I get the emails from the married people telling me how unhappy they are, and again, if they were just single they would be happier. To this group I say “Be careful what you wish for”. The only place that you are going to find true happiness is first and foremost, within yourself. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
So why is it that everyone who is married thinks that I have the perfect life as a full time single dad. My friend Mike likes to tell me that I have it all figured out. I have branded myself at www.singleparentstown.com as a single dad, and in order to continue my mission, I must stay single. I remind him that some day I hope to find my soul mate again and live happily ever after, but he doesn’t believe me. He says that he just likes to live vicariously through me. I then have to remind him that I have no vicarious to live through…
I recently noticed on Facebook that I must be single, married or complicated. Why are those the only options I have? Why can’t I be single and uncomplicated? What about those who want to be single and married? Or those that are married and want to be single? Oops, I better not go there… What about those who are complicated and want to be uncomplicated? Facebook really needs to give us all a few more options if we truly want to let our friends know who we are. Continue reading »
Nov 152010
OK in the spirit of full disclosure I originally wrote this blog over two years ago. The reason that I am re posting it today is that first I love the blog, and second I have had a weekend from hell. It involves a lost car title, dumpster diving and a few other events that I will save for another blog. Anyway onward and upward to better and brighter days…
Webster’s Dictionary defines the word bonding as:
bond·ing Continue reading »
Oct 252010
Have you ever heard the story about the little boy who answered the phone call?
One day, the phone rang, and the little boy answered.
“May I speak to your parents?”
“They’re busy.”
“Oh. Is anybody else there?”
“The police.”
“Can I speak to them?”
“They’re busy.”
“Oh. Is anybody else there?”
“The firemen.”
“Can I speak to them?”
“They’re busy.”
“So let me get this straight — your parents, the police, and the firemen are there, but they’re all busy? What are they doing?”
“Lookin for me.” Continue reading »
