Values

People like me being confined to rest for three days is not good for the mind. It wanders way too much when it doesn't have something on hand to tackle. Today, I found a marathon of "Downsized" episodes to fill up a few hours. It is the show about the family in Arizona who faced bankruptcy head on and showcases the hard work, sacrifices, and family efforts necessary to build a stable household again.

The bottom line about this American family is that they truly are learning (or re-learning) the importance of one another and of the value of a dollar. In our society today of instant gratification, I have a feeling these are values that will be harder and harder to instill for all kinds of reasons. We feel those values are still going to be important to instill in our children. In the end, regardless what kind of life you lead, it's a person's face that you want to see in times of sorrow. A person's hand you want to hold in joy. A person's laugh you want to witness and hear.

In Cable land, we make decisions on a regular basis to help us maintain values that are important to us. Some of these decisions are forced upon us because we refuse to accumulate debt as a choice. In other words, Austin and I aren't spending money on wants instead of needs, and we are spending quality work and play time with our children.

The unrest of our society right now is something I've never lived through and realized. It is compounded by the unrest in the Middle East. We are eyes wide open to the fact that this 'recession' is simply not moving upwards for the better and now our sacrifices and decisions have to be examined:

Is it more important for me to work more hours (somewhere??), pay more out of pocket for childcare, and miss our window of being the people who raise our children-- all in efforts to try to put more money in the bank? Couple that question with the fact that I spent three hours last night examining the new kindergarten mathematics common core standards for my graduate class and one thing is completely clear: preschool will be an absolute must for all kids in order to make it through kindergarten. The changes are outrageously more complex and ambiguous. (but I'm not saying impossible!) I feel this makes my job as parent even more important, so how can I possibly work more and have less time at home? Research all over the place shows that school readiness and future school success largely can depend on the skills (emotional and cognitive) developed from 0-4. Top that with larger classes, probably fewer teachers-- and in our area, possibly fewer expert teachers (teachers will have to decide how to make a living, and possibly where to go to make that living), and we maintain that our job as parents is even more important, but new and creative ways to do more with the same amount of time and resources have to be found.

Our values sometimes get stuck in a catch 22 scenario. It would be easy to hit the panic button, as I'm sure many people, for several reasons, have done in the last three to four years. Austin and I are trying to bunker down and think logically about what has to be done to take care of ourselves as well as our children and their future should our country's economy continue to turn south. We are workers, not whiners, and the values that the family in Arizona have learned--hard work, family efforts, sacrifices--are values that we will keep striving towards, hoping for continued stability.

I couldn't ask for a better husband when it comes to surviving hard times. It's not just about the ability to get through good times, but the ability to survive the hard times--together. I want our children to know this one day, either because it was always implied or that they come to that conclusion. The strong always survive--and strength is not always measured by money. :)