Something To Fall Back On.
Yesterday I became a great Uncle for the eighth time. My Nephew and his wife had their first child, a little girl. I haven’t seen her yet, but I sure as soon as Fmom feels better, we’ll be taking a trip to see her. I remember when I was just becoming an Uncle that it sort of blew my mind, but now that those children are grown and having their own families, it’s just blowing me away that much more. I can just barely remember some of my great Aunts and Uncles. It seems they passed away while I was still pretty young. I hope that’s not a trend in our family.
Now that I have seven great nieces and one great nephew, I think I would tell them the same thing I told my daughters. Get a good education and good job so you don’t have to depend on anyone. Yes find someone you love, but always be able to depend on yourself if the going get rough. Neither of my daughters listened to me on that and my oldest that’s married seems happy enough, but still I wish she had something to fall back on, just in case.
I guess that’s one reason I have such great respect for Fmom. When my father died, she had always been a housewife with no outside work experience. My older siblings were married and trying to raise families of their own, I was trying to put myself through college and none of us could help out that much. Fmom had my two younger brothers to raise and she knew she couldn’t do it without working. So she went out and got her first job at 47. She worked there until she was 72 and didn’t want to retire even then, but she was offered a package to retire early and couldn’t pass it up. Now if Fmom had a good education and something to fall back on, it wouldn’t have been so hard on her, but she didn’t and at the beginning it was tough for her to learn new things and get used to going to an office everyday. Of course in all of this, she had no choice. If my younger brothers were going to have even the inkling of a normal life she had to work. So she did and they turned out pretty good.
I guess what I’m trying to say is sometimes situations hit you and you have no control over them. Most of the time you are the only person you can depend on. So whether you need to use it or not, it’s good to have something to fall back on.
Now that I have seven great nieces and one great nephew, I think I would tell them the same thing I told my daughters. Get a good education and good job so you don’t have to depend on anyone. Yes find someone you love, but always be able to depend on yourself if the going get rough. Neither of my daughters listened to me on that and my oldest that’s married seems happy enough, but still I wish she had something to fall back on, just in case.
I guess that’s one reason I have such great respect for Fmom. When my father died, she had always been a housewife with no outside work experience. My older siblings were married and trying to raise families of their own, I was trying to put myself through college and none of us could help out that much. Fmom had my two younger brothers to raise and she knew she couldn’t do it without working. So she went out and got her first job at 47. She worked there until she was 72 and didn’t want to retire even then, but she was offered a package to retire early and couldn’t pass it up. Now if Fmom had a good education and something to fall back on, it wouldn’t have been so hard on her, but she didn’t and at the beginning it was tough for her to learn new things and get used to going to an office everyday. Of course in all of this, she had no choice. If my younger brothers were going to have even the inkling of a normal life she had to work. So she did and they turned out pretty good.
I guess what I’m trying to say is sometimes situations hit you and you have no control over them. Most of the time you are the only person you can depend on. So whether you need to use it or not, it’s good to have something to fall back on.
posted by Family Man | 3:41 AM
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