In my heart, I will always defend you. I will always fight with you. But understand…
The world is full of kids who are out there kicking doors in every single day. You are going to have to learn to stand on your own and kick those doors in yourself. We can’t do it together. When you get in trouble, I will not defend you. If I do, then you don’t learn how to stand on your own feet. If you don’t learn how to handle adversity or work with authority because I am making you weaker by fighting your battles for you, I am hurting your perspective on your future employers or bosses and life itself. If you don’t respect them and work with them, they will fire you. Plus, there are kids out there everyday kicking doors down because they have to do that to survive. They will be stronger than you. You have to learn how to stand on your own two feet. You have to learn to be brave.
It’s going to be hard for us. It’s going to be hard to watch you fall and for you to not understand why I won’t fight like some of the other parents will, so forgive me. But learn to stand and fight. Learn to stand on your own two feet. Learn to not only show up at the party, but to kick the damn door in when you arrive.
Girls, the world is full of people who make money. The world is full of people who can have great jobs. But the world isn’t full of courageous people. Hopefully by watching you fall, I will teach you to look adversity in the face, be able to keep your composure, and get up and carry on. In life, you have two choices:
- You can complain about how unfair life is and how things should be different.
- You can take life’s punches on the chin, just keep pushing forward, and make it different.
That’s it. It’s that simple. Learn to persevere.
My role isn’t to just keep you safe, it is to teach you to live in the real world. For your sake, I must learn to let go. As stupid as it might sound, I’m going to stand further back when you are walking. When you are taking little risks that can’t hurt you (like a scratch on your knee), I’m going to give you space to fall. I’m going to try to teach you not to run when I say walk. If you fall and scratch your knee, so be it. Listen to what people say and learn to follow directions. When you get into school and things don’t go your way, I’m going to allow that teacher to give you sentences or take away recess time. You are going to learn to accept it.
It’s going to be hard because I am the principal, but your teachers are going to know that they don’t have to walk on eggshells and be worried about their every move. They are going to know that one of my biggest fears is you will be given an easier road because of my position. They are going to know that I want you to blaze your own trail, not walk on one that I create. That’s not what I think parents should do. Sadly, that is what I see happening too often.
I’m not going to handicap you by making your life easy. I refuse. You are not going to be a punk.
“Raise your children to make choices for their own lives; raise your children to be responsible, take the initiative and be accountable; raise your children to know there is a consequence for every choice, good or bad.”
This will be our motto. Forgive me when I watch you fall. But by watching you fall, I hope that I am going to teach you to fly.
I will love you forever,
Dad
Dad of Girls 