Tuesday, January 31, 2006
On Parenting
Keeping in mind the busy life of today’s parents, or for that matter, parents through the ages, (You’re not alone) I sincerely think the time spent with small children exposing them to different forms of healthy stimulation is essential.
This principal actually holds true through the formidable years, that is, to about age eight. After that, as your child is exposed to social situations, school for example, the world at large will have an influence on your child’s thinking. Note: this is natural and not necessary bad; however, it is my feeling that you need to get there first to establish the values you and your spouse adhere to.
This, of course, helps to define your thinking about what is great and good. See how parenting works?
However, you do your best and with some luck, it all works out and one day, you can look back and be content. Believe me, the child rearing years go by in a blink, so enjoy every minute.
This was read to me by my Mom a long time ago. And, yes, it stayed with me. I lived it some years back, as you are living it now. Enjoy and savor, these times are quite fleeting.
I still think of lines 29-32 when I deal all my kids.
The Children's Hour
1 Between the dark and the daylight,
2 When the night is beginning to lower,
3 Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
4 That is known as the Children's Hour.
5 I hear in the chamber above me
6 The patter of little feet,
7 The sound of a door that is opened,
8 And voices soft and sweet.
9 From my study I see in the lamplight,
10 Descending the broad hall stair,
11 Grave Alice, and laughing Allegro,
12 And Edith with golden hair.
13 A whisper, and then a silence:
14 Yet I know by their merry eyes
15 They are plotting and planning together
16 To take me by surprise.
17 A sudden rush from the stairway,
18 A sudden raid from the hall!
19 By three doors left unguarded
20 They enter my castle wall!
21 They climb up into my turret
22 O'er the arms and back of my chair;
23 If I try to escape, they surround me;
24 They seem to be everywhere.
25 They almost devour me with kisses,
26 Their arms about me entwine,
27 Till I think of the Bishop of Binge
28 In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!
29 Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
30 Because you have scaled the wall,
31 Such an old mustache as I am
32 Is not a match for you all!
33 I have you fast in my fortress,
34 And will not let you depart,
35 But put you down into the dungeon
36 In the round-tower of my heart.
37 And there will I keep you forever,
38 Yes, forever and a day,
39 Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
40 And molder in dust away!
Notes
11] Longfellow's three daughters, of whom Edith came second and may have been the subject of Longfellow's "There was a little girl."
27] In a 10th-century legend, Bishop Hatton, archbishop of Mainz, was driven by a horde of mice to his Rhine castle, Museum, and consumed by them there in revenge for his burning to death of a group of poor people so that the rich would have more food in a time of famine.
Poetry Source is HERE.
This post is from KRAKEN. He emailed it to me requesting I post for his minions to digest and reflect.
This principal actually holds true through the formidable years, that is, to about age eight. After that, as your child is exposed to social situations, school for example, the world at large will have an influence on your child’s thinking. Note: this is natural and not necessary bad; however, it is my feeling that you need to get there first to establish the values you and your spouse adhere to.
This, of course, helps to define your thinking about what is great and good. See how parenting works?
However, you do your best and with some luck, it all works out and one day, you can look back and be content. Believe me, the child rearing years go by in a blink, so enjoy every minute.
This was read to me by my Mom a long time ago. And, yes, it stayed with me. I lived it some years back, as you are living it now. Enjoy and savor, these times are quite fleeting.
I still think of lines 29-32 when I deal all my kids.
The Children's Hour
by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
1 Between the dark and the daylight,
2 When the night is beginning to lower,
3 Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
4 That is known as the Children's Hour.
5 I hear in the chamber above me
6 The patter of little feet,
7 The sound of a door that is opened,
8 And voices soft and sweet.
9 From my study I see in the lamplight,
10 Descending the broad hall stair,
11 Grave Alice, and laughing Allegro,
12 And Edith with golden hair.
13 A whisper, and then a silence:
14 Yet I know by their merry eyes
15 They are plotting and planning together
16 To take me by surprise.
17 A sudden rush from the stairway,
18 A sudden raid from the hall!
19 By three doors left unguarded
20 They enter my castle wall!
21 They climb up into my turret
22 O'er the arms and back of my chair;
23 If I try to escape, they surround me;
24 They seem to be everywhere.
25 They almost devour me with kisses,
26 Their arms about me entwine,
27 Till I think of the Bishop of Binge
28 In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!
29 Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
30 Because you have scaled the wall,
31 Such an old mustache as I am
32 Is not a match for you all!
33 I have you fast in my fortress,
34 And will not let you depart,
35 But put you down into the dungeon
36 In the round-tower of my heart.
37 And there will I keep you forever,
38 Yes, forever and a day,
39 Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
40 And molder in dust away!
Notes
11] Longfellow's three daughters, of whom Edith came second and may have been the subject of Longfellow's "There was a little girl."
27] In a 10th-century legend, Bishop Hatton, archbishop of Mainz, was driven by a horde of mice to his Rhine castle, Museum, and consumed by them there in revenge for his burning to death of a group of poor people so that the rich would have more food in a time of famine.
Poetry Source is HERE.
This post is from KRAKEN. He emailed it to me requesting I post for his minions to digest and reflect.
