Spring break

Spring break is what it used to be for me. It was nice to have a week off from school and the homework. A week to spend with my family, a week to go to bed before midnight. I did appreciate it, but the work didn't stop, I still had to work every day, there were still chores everyday, bills still had to be paid! I remember when I was in high school and most of my friends went some where with there family, or even with a group of friends. They always came back with stories, and pictures that I was envious about. My family did not have the money to send me, or take me. My spring breaks consisted of me picking up extra hours at work so I could get ahead on my insurance payments, gas money, lunch money, or just to have some extra cash in my pocket. It was not what I wanted for spring break, but it was what I had and I dealt with it. There should be a mandatory spring break at every place of business, even if it were Friday through Monday, imagine what the employee attitudes would be like! I would find great comfort in my company giving me some time off in the spring to party it up, or clean house or what ever I wanted to do!

College?

I never liked school, I was never good at it. When I graduated from high school there was never intention to ever go back to what seemed the biggest struggle of my life. There was things to be done in the world, things to be changed, places to go, money to be made. I did just that, I have so many experiences that if I had sat in a classroom they would have never happened. I learned how to manage not only spending, paying bills, but investing at an early age. I bought my first house when I was 19, 2 years later turned that into a rental, and bought another one. I had drive to be successful, not every kid coming out of high school has that, so they need to go to college to figure that out. I always wondered why people spend so much money on learning things that most people will never use in the "real world". I am a banker, while I have learned many things from this English class, it is highly unlikely that I will use the majority of it, I do numbers not words! When I decided to go back to school, or should I say when my wife decided that I should go back to school, I was not excited to take on this adventure at all. There was a lot of feet dragging in the beginning, but as I got deeper in to the process it slowly transformed in to a good feeling. I am opening my mind to somewhat of an evil spirit from my past, and showing myself that I can be a good student, I am smart enough to earn a degree. I am showing my children that it is never to late to face the fears in our life, and take on the world. I am not sure that school will get me ahead in my career nor do I care, this is for me and my family.

Discipline

When it comes to disciplining children everyone has an opinion. I am a firm believer that spanking is part of discipline. It should not be used in the place of teaching a lesson, and it should also be used sparingly. I have two children, my daughter needed a spanking one time, my son is a whole different story. We never spanked to hurt, we don't beat our kids, but sometimes you need to get the attention when all reasoning has been tossed out of the window. Our son was extremely difficult from the age 2-4, most boys are at that age. We tried several different techniques when he would go in to his tantrums, and most did not hold up. The worst is when you are out in a store and it comes on, what do you do? Some experts say you should leave and that is punishing the child. To me that is a punishment to the parent, because now you have to make another trip. I was at Target one day when my son was three, and he started to throw a tantrum, so I gave him a swat on the butt and told him to knock it off, to which he did. When I looked up there was a lady staring at me like I  just committed a horrible crime, so I politely asked her if she wanted one next! When it comes to ignoring your child's bad behavior, please do this at home, nobody enjoys watching and hearing your kid scream and throw a fit in the store or restaurant. There are discrete ways of dealing with it so do it! If you are not going to parent your child, or teach them to respect who will? Teachers hands are tied, because they can no longer discipline without getting in trouble. There is nothing wrong with a good ol fashioned spanking, done in good taste.