Child Rearing With A Tangent

last night i was a bumb and camped out on the couch to watch tv. for the second time ever i watch super nanny. it might come as a shock to everyone that i know, but i like to learn about child rearing. this is not a fact that i've shared with people. not because i'm embarassed about it. the subject just doesn't come up in conversation with anyone. probably because i haven't been in a long term relationship in 4 years.

what got me on the kick was in the year 2000 i started dated a woman with an 18 month old son. i dated her for nearly 2 years, and i still hangout with her and her son from time to time today, 4 years later. btw, he turned 7 this year! even though i don't have kids i know what parents mean when they say that kids grow up fast. anyway, ever since i started dating her i've been reading about parenting. i never bought any books or anything, but anytime i was in a waiting area, whether it be at the doctors office, auto shop, tire shop, ect. i would read the parenting magazines instead of the car or sports magazines. though i'm not currently a father and i'm not in any position to be one anytime soon. i do want a wife and kids someday, and i want to be prepared. it is very interesting to learn about the different points of view and techniques of child rearing. though i grew up in a home that believed in spanking, and it worked mind you, i have found through literature and personal experience that it is not necessarily necessary. watching the super nanny on tv really re-enforces this way of thinking as well.

something else i notice on super nanny is that a lot of parents she helps think that they are getting most of the parent principles right. when they are totally getting them wrong. one can't really put too much blame on them because child rearing isn't something that is really taught to parents. so they really don't know if they are doing something wrong until it is typically too late. this lead me to think of another subject that people don't get educated on; money. people go through life thinking they are doing the right thing with there money. when in reality they aren't, and typically won't find out until it is too late. the main problem is no one has ever taught them how. when you leave a bunch of people to figure things out for themselves, some will get it right and most will get it wrong on the first try. for a lot of things in life this is okay because we learn from our mistakes and correct them. the only problem with children and money is we tend to find out that we made a mistake a tad bit too late in the game to go back and correct it.

so i kind of feel like i'm a super nanny of money. instead of showing up to people's houses and guiding them on good child rearing practices. i show up and guide them on how to make educated financial decisions that will greatly effect their future quality of life. the sad fact is many people don't think to get a guide for the longest journey of their lives, their financial journey, until it is too late. a major financial magazine reported in 2005 that 95 out of 100 people that turned 65 in 2005 would either still be working or broke and unable to work. something that could have been avoided if they had taken action sooner in life. that is the kicker to the whole deal. the most important factor in the planning of one's retirement or a child's education is time, and time is the one think most people don't give too much weight when it comes to these long term goals.