YOU SIGNED UP FOR THIS!!!

Welcome to my world. 8.30am, watched Daniel, Maritzurg College first half hockey. 9:10 am, watched Ethan first half rugby at Laddsworth, 9:40am, watched Noah run mini comrades at Hilton Pre-Primary. No time to cop out now. Think very carefully what you are prepared to sacrifice so that your kids can feel loved, supported and nurtured. You can’t blame anyone else if it goes pear-shaped.

Stand up men

Stand up men

This absolute barbaric act is a symptom of a fatherless society, many of these young men have had no, or poor role models due to generations of alcohol, drug abuse, domestic violence and personal abuse.This is absolutely NO EXCUSE for these actions and one even wonders if the death penalty would have prevented this.

If you are a single mom with an absent husband/father for your children (whether widowed, divorced or whatever) PLEASE make sure that there is a stable male influence in your kids lives (grandfather, respectful boyfriend, respected guy from church, local youth group) or something to help your kids, mentor and guide them

It is tough being single and a mom (my mom did it from when I was 3).

If you need help in your area, contact me and I will try and see what I can do through my network

MEN.. you PROMISED

Men,remember the vows you made to your wife. Go through them again and measure yourselves. You made some promises. Are you keeping them? Ask your wife every week. Am I husbanding and fathering well. And LISTEN to the response. Don’t respond, or defend, just take away what has been said and reflect, ACT

SPEND TIME WITH YOUR KIDS.. YOU SIGNED UP FOR THIS WHEN YOU HAD THEM

Ethan, who is U9, has been asked to play an under 10 cricket match today, my little superstar..so proud. Spend time with your kids dads, batting, bowling, nurturing and mentoring them..we are bringing up the future leaders..

Watch what you expose your kids to.

Do you really want your kids to celebrate this..

Though the origin of the word Halloween is Christian, the holiday is commonly thought to have pagan roots.[11] Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while “some folklorists have detected its origins in Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain”, which comes from the Old Irish for “summer’s end”.[11] Samhain (pronounced sah-win or sow-in) was the first and most important of the four quarter days in the medieval Gaelic (Irish, Scottish and Manx)[12] calendar.[13][14] It was held on or about October 31 – November 1 and kindred festivals were held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf (in Wales), Kalan Gwav (in Cornwall) and Kalan Goañv (in Brittany). Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest

Irish literature and many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain. It marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the ‘darker half’ of the year.[15] This was a time for stock-taking and preparing for the cold winter ahead;[11] cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and livestock were slaughtered.[15] In much of the Gaelic world, bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them.[15] Some of these rituals hint that they may once have involved human sacrifice.[16][11] Divination games or rituals were also done at Samhain.[15]
Samhain (like Beltane) was seen as a time when the ‘door’ to the Otherworld opened enough for the souls of the dead, and other beings such as fairies, to come into our world.[17][18] The souls of the dead were said to revisit their homes on Samhain.[19] Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them.[20] Lewis Spence described it as a “feast of the dead” and “festival of the fairies”.[21] However, harmful spirits and fairies were also thought to be active at Samhain

Sign’s we are getting it right?

• My wife is ill with a kidney infection, so on the way back from cricket nets Daniel says he will cook dinner..goes to Spar, buys ingredients and does his thing. My young gentlemen.. And it was really nice.
• Chatting with Daniel about his grade 7  farewell, he knows which girl he wants to invite, and she has already turned down a few boys (they have a bit of a thing going so I think she is waiting for him). They BBM all the time and I suggest he ask her quickly before she loses patience and goes with someone else.. “No dad, I need to ask her face to face, so it means something” Wow, kids can still talk to one another..

A poem about kids

I saw this stuck to a fridge while away for a weekend many years ago, and it really struck a cord..

“Let the children laugh and be glad.

Oh my dear, they haven’t long before the world assaults them. Allow them genuine laughter now. Laugh with them, till tears run down your faces–till a memory of pure delight and precious relationship is established within them, indestructible, personal and forever.

Soon enough they’ll meet faces unreasonably enraged. Soon enough they’ll be accused of things they did not do. Soon enough they will suffer guilt at the hands of powerful people who can’t accept their own guilt and who must dump it, therefore, on the weak. In that day the children must be strengthened by self-confidence so they can resist the criticism of fools. But self-confidence begins in the experience of childhood.

So give your children (your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews, the children of your neighbours and your community) golden days, their own pure days, in which they are so clearly and dearly beloved that they believe in love and in their own particular worth when love shall seem in short supply hereafter. Give them laughter.

Observe each child with individual attention to learn what triggers the guileless laugh in each. Is it a story? A game? Certain family traditions? Excursions? Elaborate fantasies? Simple winks? What?

Do that thing.

Because the laughter that is so easy in childhood must echo its encouragement a long, long time. A lifetime.”