Parenting and Accountability

People who know me know I'm pretty keen on personal accountability -- for myself, and for other people.

Those same folks know I don't have to know you to hold you accountable.

I'll be professional, I'll be constructive, but if you are doing something blatantly untoward in public, it's totally possible I'll chat with you about it. Society's arguably in a bit of a nosedive, and I'd argue societal character disorder is at least in part at play.

 My kids know this, too. Sometimes, that bites me.

Last night, I was helping my 4-year-old with something she really should be able to do on her own. I stopped what I was doing, briefly helped her, then went back to what I was doing.

"Daaaa-dy!"

"What, Hon?"

"You didn't do it right."

"Look, Sweetie, it's not my job to do this for you."

"Yeah, but it is your job to do the part you said you'd help me with right!"

(Dammit.)

She's totally right.

Note to self: Avoid transparent half-assery.

Can't change the past ...

There is no going back to the past, jacking with the timestream, stopping John Wilkes Booth, keeping Pa Kent from having a heart attack, or avoiding the Butterfly effect.

There's just dealing with what did happen, and doing something about it and your life from right now onward.

So if you're reading this now, sitting in the dark in you're underwear in your lame-ass wannabe version of the Batcave, put on your Big Boy pants, nut up, do what you already know needs to be done, and get past all the bull***t self-talk you've used to justify your flaccid inactivity.

Nothing you do defines your value, or adds or detracts one iota from who you are at the core.

How you react to what's done to you says volumes about your character, and who you really, really are.