Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Refusing to Raise Idiots

If my kids grow up to be idiots, well, it won’t be my fault. I am a mean mom and force my kids to ‘learn’ and ‘appreciate’ things that otherwise they would simply ignore. I honestly believe that my 13-yr. old has no interest in doing anything that isn’t purely entertainment and that requires more than just a handful of brain cells. Tough.

Because I believe that learning musical instruments is beneficial to the brain, makes them well rounded, and teaches children discipline, I make them take piano lessons. (Ok, so those are my hands on the piano, but that’s because once again I am taking lessons too.) And if they grow up to hate music of any substance, well it wasn’t my fault.

 piano (11) copy

Because I believe kids should never eat hamburger helper and rarely, if at all, eat anything made under golden arches (smiling stars are ok though), I force my kids to try food like arugula and curry. It’s more than just good nutrition I want them to emulate—I want them to appreciate different cultures, and food is the best way I know how to do that. Not only do they have to try these foods, they have to cook with me as well. If they grow up to hate vegetables, well, once again, it' wasn’t because I didn’t try. Here’s Nathan cooking some Tikka Masala:

nathan cooking

And because I believe God loves us (we are his children), Jesus Christ is my Savior,  and has given us a plan to guide our lives, I make my kids go to church. We pray together everyday, we read from the scriptures nearly everyday, and do our best to follow the commandments. I believe these things add value and meaning to our life. Will my kids agree someday when they are adults? I sure hope so. But once again, if they choose to abandon our  faith, it wasn’t because we didn’t try. (Disclaimer: I do NOT believe you are an idiot if you are not religious. These are just my own personal values.) Here we are at the temple in Laie, Hawaii:

hawaii temple

I correct their grammar, refuse to let them say “like” too much, and make them scrub toilets and dust around the house. But hey, in 20 years, there just might be three more adults in society who go into therapy because,  lo and behold, it turns out, they had an idiot for a mother.

I’m ok with that.

7 comments:

Pamela said...

You are doing the work of making an adult that someone can love....
No greater job in the world.
Thank you.

Michael said...

Good for you! That's just the way I believe, too!

Mary said...

Thank you for spelling the word "grammar" correctly!

I too am a mean mom with values, but also a little bit of the idiot. Why? Because I choose to be my kids' piano teacher--and that just adds to the torture for them and me! However, I'm finding that the torture of piano lessons with me motivates them to learn the basics and then seek other instruments, which is fine by me because it still falls into my evil little plan of sneaking culture into their childhoods. Ha!

Info for you said...

I love your thinking!

Steffi said...

Yes, I agree with all other comments!I love your thinking.

Casey said...

Loved reading this. I too have a 13 year old that doesn't want to do anything these days. I'm told it's the age and they just need to get through it. The big topic lately has been whether she has to keep taking piano lessons. I've been questioning what to do. Thanks for the reminder of why I have her take in the first place. Keep up the good work and the good posts.

Laurie said...

My kids are already in therapy, what does that say about me? lol

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