My oldest daughters just completed 28 hours of guard practice in three days. The final day was 12 hours. Did they whine and complain about it? Yep. Did they survive? Yep.
Some of my fellow guard moms posted about this schedule on Facebook. And the reaction of their ‘friends’ amused and annoyed me. These women who know nothing about winter guard complained mightily about the length of the practices. One of them even called it ‘ridiculous’. I was frankly a bit shocked by these comments. You would have thought these kids had been forced to work in a coal mine for 12 hours. I came away with 2 distinct impressions.
1. Why do people feel the need to proclaim their opinion about every-friggin-thing on Facebook? Are you really that full of yourself? I beg of you. The next time you are tempted to comment, ask yourself these questions first. Is this helpful? Is this necessary? Is this to build up? Or destroy? Because I honestly think some of you just comment on everything because you cannot envision a scenario where you aren’t the final word on every topic. Let me help you out here. You ain’t. Do us all a favor and get a blog. You can voice your fantastic opinions there and we won’t have to read it.
2. Why are people so concerned with kids working hard? I just don’t get it. If my friends had posted that their children had a 12 hour movie marathon with their buddies, no one would have said a negative word. And look, I have nothing against movie marathons but trust me when I tell you that the teenagers in America today are resting quite enough. I want my children to have lots of fun and enjoy their lives. But that’s not my ultimate goal for my beloveds. Above all I want them to serve God with excellence.
And excellence requires sacrifice.
When life gets tough (and trust me, it will) my kids will remember that they made it through many hard 12 hour days. And let’s face it, all my kids are going to grow up to be women. If you are raising a future woman, you better make sure they are prepared for a whole bunch of long days. And hopefully the reward they seek will be no more than having done something well.
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