Where are all the "real men" these days?

[cous 5]

I'll throw out a couple of observations on this topic. My parents divorced when i was in the third grade. Fortunately my brother and I were never abused and knew we had two parents who loved us. But being raised by a single mom (who worked as a waitress) in the 1960's was a challenge. I know first hand what it was like to have very little to eat sometimes and very few possessions. I doubt if my family and friends would even believe me if I told them how it was back in those days. The strange thing is I have a lot of good memories from that time in my life. Even though a lot of crazy things happened. My mom passed away when I was 12 and we moved back in with my dad. I don't have many good or bad memories growing up from that point on. My step mom said that they couldn't afford to send me to college, but managed to send my three younger siblings. Then she told me maybe I should go find another place to live. I packed up and hit the road. Just to let you know, I never was in trouble in school, got good grades, never have done any drugs, rarely drink, and have worked since I was 17. Needless to say I was a little bitter about things. These are the times where your life can go either way. I worked hard, even working two jobs for a while, met my wife (married for 33 years now, and raised two boys that I couldn't be more proud of. It wasn't easy but I, like many people, wanted a better life for my family than I had growing up. I'm very proud that I was able to accomplish that. But it is such a different world today. I think one of the biggest problems is that kids today are hardly ever allowed to fail. Society wants to make it perfect for every kid. Then when they get out on their own, and they aren't successful, they have a hard time handling it. I can't tell you how much I've learned from my many failures, and successes. I have had success in sports and I have also been cut after the first day of practice. It has all contributed to who I am today. I feel like I can do anything, and a lot of that confidence is because I'm not afraid to fail. In the overall scheme of life, its usually not that big a deal. Even though I have had a little taste of a tough childhood, I can't imagine what some of you guys have been through. Keep pushing forward and each day try to make your world a little better.

Mike

 

[Luke]

I'll throw out a couple of observations on this topic. My parents divorced when i was in the third grade. Fortunately my brother and I were never abused and knew we had two parents who loved us. But being raised by a single mom (who worked as a waitress) in the 1960's was a challenge. I know first hand what it was like to have very little to eat sometimes and very few possessions. I doubt if my family and friends would even believe me if I told them how it was back in those days. The strange thing is I have a lot of good memories from that time in my life. Even though a lot of crazy things happened. My mom passed away when I was 12 and we moved back in with my dad. I don't have many good or bad memories growing up from that point on. My step mom said that they couldn't afford to send me to college, but managed to send my three younger siblings. Then she told me maybe I should go find another place to live. I packed up and hit the road. Just to let you know, I never was in trouble in school, got good grades, never have done any drugs, rarely drink, and have worked since I was 17. Needless to say I was a little bitter about things. These are the times where your life can go either way. I worked hard, even working two jobs for a while, met my wife (married for 33 years now, and raised two boys that I couldn't be more proud of. It wasn't easy but I, like many people, wanted a better life for my family than I had growing up. I'm very proud that I was able to accomplish that. But it is such a different world today. I think one of the biggest problems is that kids today are hardly ever allowed to fail. Society wants to make it perfect for every kid. Then when they get out on their own, and they aren't successful, they have a hard time handling it. I can't tell you how much I've learned from my many failures, and successes. I have had success in sports and I have also been cut after the first day of practice. It has all contributed to who I am today. I feel like I can do anything, and a lot of that confidence is because I'm not afraid to fail. In the overall scheme of life, its usually not that big a deal. Even though I have had a little taste of a tough childhood, I can't imagine what some of you guys have been through. Keep pushing forward and each day try to make your world a little better.

Mike

Very interesting observations Mike. Self reliance is a rare commodity these days amongst a lot of young people (not all). They get a medal just for participating and have a huge sense entitlement, want to earn 5 grand a week but not work for it or do the time to learn a skill. Failure is a hard lesson that one is never in a hurry to repeat but not to try for fear of it is the greatest failure. In some of us there is a storm raging some kind of great dark river that can crush us and all those closest to us, but if you can harness that same storm you can achieve what is thought impossible by a lot of men.

 

[whitesoc]

Interesting topic guys.

I give each and everyone of you guys that have shared your stories a lot of credit, says a lot about you guys. I didn't have anything like that kind of childhood, I had a fantastic role model in my father( who was also my best friend) and 17 years after his passing it still hurts thinking I'll never see him again.

Like Mike said, society wants to make it perfect for every kid, but in reality it's not.

Is it fair that they pass a kid along through high school even though he hasn't accomplished anything? What kind of message does that send?

I think it's time for these kids to pull up their pants put on a belt and take some responsibility for themselves and their actions.

I've always said to my wife that if my son looks at me with half of the respect that I had for my dad I'll have done a good job.