Sunday Parks

Sunday was a beautiful day...Ole Boy and I had a nice Cracker Barrel breakfast and headed off around the Shoals with my trusty camera. 

Natchez Trace...love the cloud reflections.

A picnic area on the TVA Reservation

Under the Natchez Trace bridge

Natchez Trace...It really was a beautiful day.

This cute little critter posed for me.

A bare-naked sycamore tree

A view of one of the parks on the Reservation

The footbridge at what's called "The Rockpile" on the Reservation

*****

I was watching The Biggest Loser tonight...I always want to eat while watching that show.   But while I was watching, something clicked in my brain.   Nothing new, nothing I haven't already been told, but it occurred to me that I should encourage myself about losing weight, just as I would encourage a friend.   And I would encourage a friend, pep talk them all along the way.   I tell myself, "You. Can't. Do. This!"   I'm thinking a little more about Celebrate Recovery.   It would be nice to make it through November and December without gaining any weight.

Dad is home resting comfortably with his new pacemaker.

In the waiting room at the hospital while he was getting his pre-op stuff done, I was reading a magazine, and it had one of those advice columns.   A mom wrote about the battle she was facing every morning with her 9 year old son.   Nine years old.   They fought every morning because she tried to get him to get dressed and get his chores done.   In her words, he usually began the fight with, "Don't tell me what to do!"   NINE years old!    She wanted to know how to handle him.    I fully expected the columnist to remind her just who the parent was, and which one of them was the child.   She didn't.   She suggested an award system, where the boy would get to choose a prize if he completed 12 of 15 things for the week.

Really?

I would take a paddle and warm that boys butt up.    Problem solved.    If it wasn't solved, I'd do it again.

Really.

I believe, based on my experiences in HR several years ago when I was a recruiter for four local warehouses...two of them were rather large...and my eight years as an office manager at Mr. Big's company, that some of those boys...er...men (some females, mostly males) who were never spanked as a child were hired to work at these companies.   They usually lasted a month to six weeks, and never quite worked a full 40 hour week.   They bounce from job to job, when they can find one, and periodically come around begging for second and third chances, only to repeat the cycle.   Many of these folks are pushing 30 and still living off Mom and/or Dad.   Many have reproduced.  Of course, they don't work enough to support their children.   The children of these people are often supported by the government, that is, the tax payers.   (I am glad we have these programs in place, they are needed.   However, if we were all doing what we are supposed to be doing, we wouldn't really need to government stepping in....but I digress.)

No, I don't believe that all losers "turned out" this way just because they were never spanked.   I know that a paddle (or any punishment) isn't always the answer.   I also know that sometimes other factors play a role, and that the parents are blaming themselves when, in fact, they shouldn't take the blame.   Kids have their own minds, don't they?   But a nine year old telling his mother not to tell him what to do need to be shown, in no uncertain terms, who is in charge.

Tomorrow is Hump Day...I hope yours is pleasant.

And....

Don't go spanking your kids just for

General Purposes after reading my post. 

LOL