I am thankful every day that I have good children. I was an absolute little shit when I was a teenager.

I don’t know if it is because of their upbringing or despite it, as they have both had serious challenges, but I enjoy every single day that I have good kids. I enjoy it because I know there is a razor thin edge that can never be expected, or at least it cannot always be expected. I try to raise both of mine, a boy and a girl, to be strong, productive members of society. My son will most likely enlist in the army in 2 years after he finishes his early college/AA degree.

I will at least get one generation by these societal freaks.

I have sacrificed dearly for them. I have made them my priority through the years. In fact, one of my early post on this forum was about the upcoming birth of my son and what my best options were. I listened to you wise people lol, and it cost me several tens of thousands of dollars in the long run…but when it was all said and done, 16 years later, they both wound up living with me and better people in almost every way than I was at their age.

To Bragg a little, my 22 year old son, who watched a lot of Thomas the train, is a psych eval away from the TX DPS academy.

My pearl of fatherhood wisdom was when he screwed up he'd always say I'm sorry. I finally got pissed one day and said "I don't want to hear you are sorry again, from now on it's yes sir, I'll do better next time ". Believe it or not I think it eventually changed his whole outlook.


But we also built a 56 Chevy truck from the frame up. I didn't want a kid that couldn't change a flat tire. He killed his first deer at 8. Plus lots of other lessons along the way. I think I did my part. It's up to him, mostly, to carry it on.

Tommy