[00:00:19.900]
Welcome back to another episode of the Y ‘all Are Crazy Ranch podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about why it’s important to plan your summers ahead before they happen.
[00:00:31.000]
Before summer?
[00:00:32.200]
Before summer. So we are in March, we are in the first week of March. And I love that our summer is planned out.
[00:00:41.800]
Is it better to do that or wait until August to plan your summer?
[00:00:46.400]
August, that’d be way too late. The problem most people that we see, it’s like it’s June and it’s like most people just don’t have a plan because it sneaks up on you, right? Summers, it’s like, oh my gosh, it just snuck up on me. But here’s the thing, you know it’s coming. So rather than just wait till it gets here, it’s great to just go ahead and plan your summer out, get a plan going.
[00:01:10.400]
Yeah, I think this is a timely episode because we are, you know, summer’s not here yet, it’s time to start planning. And we’ve just seen over the years talking to other parents that parents don’t plan their summers, a lot of them, you know? And it’s like, man, so we just thought, hey, this might be a good episode to teach people what we do to plan our summers with.
[00:01:34.000]
with as parents of seven children, you know, and I don’t know what we would do without a detailed plan and You know, this is definitely your department, right? This is what you do you plan the summers really? I just accept the calendar invites, but that’s our system You know, we know I know you’re handling that part of it and it’s very important But we see a lot of parents and their kids and you know They get to summer and their kids are out of school and it’s like what are your kids doing this summer? They’re like I don’t know. It’s like are they just sitting at home?
[00:02:05.000]
Yeah, I guess It’s like man, you know yeah, my goal as a mom has always been to make my kids summers fun and Memorable and enjoyable and I keep those kids busy
[00:02:18.300]
Kids like to be busy and they’re not you know, they’re a lot of depending on the age of your kid They’re not going to come up with their own things to go do other than getting into trouble So And with us having a bunch of boys, it’s even more important. I feel like they’re also tear your house down That’s very true.
[00:02:35.000]
Well, like we’ve said our kids are very they’re active. They like being outdoors And we like keeping them busy and outdoors as much as possible. It’s healthy for them It’s good for them to move their bodies. It’s good for them to get vitamin d and being in the sunshine So I tell people like my goal in the summers is to keep my bids my kids active and moving Going and looking forward to what they have ahead of them So I also think it’s great for kids to have free time just to be kids I love just I love that too I think kids need time to be bored and to figure out how to have their own fun So I will say that is very important
[00:03:14.300]
How many weeks about how many weeks is summer like a kid we get out of ours get out mid -may ours actually get out A little early and you go back first ish week of August.
[00:03:24.200]
Yes, like is it three months about three months Yeah, somewhere about that. Yeah about three months and I don’t know that we have something I mean we might have something planned every single week, but you have you definitely kind of Organize like our big things Talk about our last episode that we did about the rocks the big rocks the boulders and then you fill it in with the Little rocks and in the sand. Yeah, you know and a lot of times our big rocks are our big family trips our big vacations Yeah, so we’ll start there.
[00:03:54.300]
I think that’s good to put your vacations in first that way They are solidified and then you can build around it, right? So our big vacations. We normally do two each summer There really got a three but if you count family camp I was thinking that was our second
[00:04:12.700]
Well, like last year we did last year was a special year.
[00:04:15.800]
Oh, yeah special Yeah, some years we do do three it kind of depends. So last year. Yes Well, we called this the epic summer last year. We ended up getting to go on a trip to England For an Amsterdam for 10 day now 10 days.
[00:04:31.600]
Yeah Yeah, we’re in London for seven days went to Scotland one of those days Mm -hmm, and then we went to Amsterdam like for what two nights or something three nights.
[00:04:40.600]
Yes So that was a really big trip. We we’ve told you guys before some of these trips We have to divide our kids up because these are Company incentive trips for you. We can’t always get a hotel room for all of us so
[00:04:56.700]
Last summer we did that we divided up our kids and we took three on the London trip Yeah, we took Briley Benaiah and then Baxter. He was the baby at that time So he kind of still had to go with me everywhere. So that’s who we took on that trip We also took my parents they got to go with us and that was so many memories made from that trip It was a good trip so fun And then the other trip we did actually before that was a cruise to Bermuda and on that one We took Bowen Baker and then Baxter the baby. So once again great trip great memories We loved the cruise.
[00:05:31.100]
I loved the cruise.
[00:05:31.700]
You loved the cruise You didn’t like it. I don’t like sitting still you guys don’t know that about me. He likes chilling
[00:05:39.800]
Well, if you’ve ever been on a cruise you have asked I like the destinations where you get off Yeah, but see the problem is you have at sea days.
[00:05:48.100]
I love that You just start drifting at sea and I might just start taking you on more cruises now that I think about it because And it keeps you contained and you can’t make me go like all over wherever we are So that is true. I might I might start doing that on purpose.
[00:06:05.100]
I just it’s only so much of that I can take It’s like you lay around and you’re like, well, what do we do? And you’re like nothing nothing and I’m like, I don’t read a book I’m like I’m gonna go walk the track So I did I walked the track a lot Cuz I just got a dude and I love reading and I would I like to read and I would lay down and read But gosh, I need things to do.
[00:06:24.400]
So I like vacations where you rest.
[00:06:26.700]
He likes restful vacations And then I like rest there. I like to have experiences. Yeah, and then we married each other. So that’s where we are
[00:06:37.200]
We help each other so that was our two epic trips last summer And then our third one was our family camp. We’re bad This is our fourth year to go to family camp. We go to Kanaka, Kauai, and Branson So it is now our annual family trip that we do with our entire family Our kids look forward to it love it and gosh, we’ll probably do it forever.
[00:07:02.100]
Yeah, is this gonna be our fourth year? Yeah, so I thought our fourth year fourth year. It’s a lot of fun.
[00:07:06.800]
Yeah, so this year we are going to Bahamas Yeah, we’re going to the Bahamas in May. So this year we’re going to the Atlantis Resort We’re going the last week of May and all the kids five of them.
[00:07:20.800]
Yeah, I mean the big one
[00:07:22.200]
One through five one through five the reason that we’re doing that once again hotel space room Capacity all that stuff, but also we’re going to a giant water park, right? Atlantis and our two littles obviously can’t swim yet I get very nervous around water and I know if we take them it’s gonna be a challenge all the time of Keeping them safe keeping life jackets on them knowing eyes on them all the time Obviously we have to do that with all of our kids But the little two I just think it’s gonna be better for them to stay home with the sitter and just be safe at home Mm -hmm, and it also Another reason we like sometimes dividing our kids up is because it allows us to focus more time on the ones we take So you guys might be like you’re still taking five kids And it is a lot but for us like when we’re used to having sevens and two babies with us
[00:08:17.200]
Five’s like, oh, we got this, let’s go. I tell people that a lot where I’m like, oh, we just took three and they’re like, you took three kids. I’m like, yeah, but gosh, when you’re used to seven, three is like, what do I do with my hands? You know, it’s what you get used to.
[00:08:33.900]
Yeah, it’s all about what you’re used to.
[00:08:35.300]
Yeah, so for us getting to focus on our big kids, one through five, I just think it’s gonna be great for them. They’re gonna love it. They’re gonna love not having their baby brothers around with strollers and slowing them down, you know. They’re gonna enjoy just going from one thing to the next.
[00:08:50.300]
True.
[00:08:51.200]
So our vacation’s on our calendar this summer. And then our family camp is on our calendar in July. We’ve started doing that one the last week of July every year, so we know when it’s happening. So vacation’s locked in.
[00:09:04.400]
Mm -hmm, and then we can start.
[00:09:06.000]
Filling in other activities around those two, you know, yeah, that’s what we do next We try to fill in around that if you’ve got what three months of summer. Maybe there’s 12 weeks You know something like that. I haven’t looked at a calendar I don’t know but let’s say there’s 12 weeks, you know, we’ve already now this blocked off two of them, right?
[00:09:24.600]
So you got ten left and then you start trying to just fill in stuff so Yeah, I will say I am very blessed We’re both very blessed that we own our own Oklahoma Grassfed Beef businesses and that we can take off as needed and But if you don’t own your own Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business, you know, you have vacation days So it’s important to go ahead and plan those ahead of time.
[00:09:47.000]
Mm -hmm. Yeah plan your time off ahead Yeah, get those solidified.
[00:09:50.900]
Yeah So another thing I’ll say is that I have always continued my work schedule in the summer
[00:09:57.500]
I talk to a lot of moms that are like, they let summer get here, and then they just kind of take their foot off the gas for work, especially if you run your own company, if you’re self -employed like I am, and especially if you’re in a sales position like I am. If you take your foot off the gas for three months, you’re not gonna like what you have to come back to in August. No, you kill all your momentum. Yeah, I’m not saying that you have to just work and keep your foot to the ground all summer, but you do need to continually keep working and keep moving, or you’re not gonna like the stagnation when you come back to work. So with that being said, I think it’s so important to have a childcare plan for the summer if you need it for your kids. Start that now. Plan that out now. There are camps, there’s…
[00:10:49.500]
VBS’s we’ll talk about that in a minute. There are you know, there’s just sitters that you can hire and for me I’ve always tried to keep a consistent two day a week Monday Wednesday work schedule I’ve done this since our oldest was a baby. So Mondays Wednesdays I keep those as work days in my summer I stay with my routine and I have a child I have child care on those days because That’s my days that I need to work.
[00:11:14.500]
So that is what I stick with and there’s plenty of Older high school girls or whatever that want to babysit in the summer. They need a job in the summer and you know, you can reach out to them and have them come help with your kids and But you got to just think and plan ahead of time and start reaching out to people getting all that stuff lined up You have to it’s so important and I would also say get a backup because things happen and you need backups Who can help you out if needed?
[00:11:40.600]
So but you got to start planning now like I talked to a friend the other day that’s like I wanted to get my kids in this summer program at the Mother’s Day out where we go
[00:11:48.900]
She’s like, but it’s already full. Well, they fill up fast because they start taking applications in February. So you really have to get on those schedules soon. And for Mother’s Day out, if you wanna be in there in August, September, when they start back, those start in February, March too. So don’t wait till August and try to get your kids in a good program. You gotta start that now. They just gotta plan ahead. So we’re gonna touch on VBS, cause I mentioned it, I love VBS.
[00:12:15.400]
And what is VBS?
[00:12:16.700]
For people that don’t know what VBS is. Vacation Bible School. I think two summers ago, I think they did seven VBS’s.
[00:12:25.900]
Which for y ‘all that don’t know, that means most churches put on Vacation Bible Schools.
[00:12:31.100]
And so if our kids did seven, I think we, you know, we enrolled them in seven different churches, vacation Bible school programs.
[00:12:39.000]
So those normally start at like four years old and they go up to like sixth grade normally. And so two of them, our church does a daytime one, which I help volunteer at that. So it’s like nine to 12. So it’s like a very short timeframe, but it’s a week long. But a lot of them are evening ones. So, and they may be like six to eight. So you’ll find lots of local churches that do VBSs.
[00:13:03.300]
That’s kind of a good little hack right there is it’s a great activity for the kids. It can also be a, you know, a good break for the parents if, you know, take them there.
[00:13:13.700]
and the kids get to be around other kids, have fun, play games, you know, learn the Bible, too.
[00:13:18.400]
All that stuff. Now you see why I do have it.
[00:13:20.000]
Yeah, so.
[00:13:21.400]
It’s a great way that, and you know what? I just think you don’t have to fill up your kids’ entire day. But if you just give them a little something that they have to look forward to, it’s like, hey, this week is this Baptist Church VBS. And it’s like, they get to look forward to that each day.
[00:13:36.800]
Right.
[00:13:37.200]
They get to hang out with kids, do activities, play games, learn the Bible, have a snack, and even if that’s only two hours a day for that week, it gives them something to look forward to and something on the calendar to do. You know, I never want to look at my weeks and be like, we don’t have anything for the kids to do for two weeks. It just doesn’t work for our kids. Our kids are active, they love being, they’re very social, and they like doing outgoing things.
[00:14:07.100]
So VBS’s and those are free. I’ve never seen a VBS charge. So that’s a free activity and Obviously they’re learning about Jesus. So that’s the best The next thing that I’m gonna say is camps So sports camps are really good for kids. I grew up doing that in the summer with basketball camps Learned a lot helped me grow Exponentially in the sport our kids we like to sign our boys up for wrestling camps in the summer this is a great way to just help them gain knowledge keep your momentum going and Yeah, just just learn more at a more intense level. Mm -hmm camp sport camps are great
[00:14:49.200]
And if you’re again have a job and you’re working and you’ve used up your time off for your vacations You know you can hire you know a high school student That’s out for the summer to take your kids to camp and pick them back up now. Yes that all that costs money But then it’s like what’s the trade -off, you know, what do you want to do? you might sacrifice some other areas you’re used to spending money on in order to Allocate this for your kids to go and and be a part of a camp or the person taking them But I just think that’s that’s an important thing versus You know just leaving a kid at home and they have nothing to do, you know your kids need something And I think I think a lot of parents miss it on that, you know Yeah, I think that’s a good point to like anytime you hire a babysitter or you sign your kid up for camp Like this all costs money.
[00:15:37.700]
It does it totally does
[00:15:39.600]
But to us, it’s worth it because we want our kids to be active and have healthy, fun summers. Like that’s a priority. So where your priorities are, that’s where your money lies.
[00:15:52.100]
Yeah, and if your money priorities lie at Starbucks and car payments, you might not have what you need to do what we’re talking about. So you need to re -prioritize.
[00:16:01.700]
There you go.
[00:16:02.300]
There you go.
[00:16:03.100]
The next thing we’re gonna do this summer is a Bible study with our kids. We actually bought the kids and us some workbooks and it’s called Systematic Theology for Kids. Basically, it just helps them learn the Bible on a deeper level and be able to defend their faith through apologetics. So we’re gonna do that this summer. I’m excited.
[00:16:22.600]
It’s gonna be good. And I think that’s another thing that we learned from a family a while ago, right before we had our kids, our first were Bradley, and they.
[00:16:33.900]
Have a curriculum of some kind for the summer. You remember that the Johnson’s the Johnson’s and it was like that’s a great idea And he’s like, yeah, you don’t want your kids to stop learning for three months. They stop thinking they stop problem -solving they just get out of the you know, the more we can stay in our habits and routines the better and He’s like you can buy all the any type of curriculum you want. It’s out there you just buy it and then you help your kids go through it and You’ve been doing that with the kids for a long time Yeah, even if it’s like those workbooks that you have them do that’s like, you know fifth grade math and Kindergarten letter writing like mine.
[00:17:10.600]
They have always done one in the summers It’s a it’s good to keep their mind going keep their skills up because hey You don’t want them to not practice math for three months
[00:17:20.100]
Yeah, I mean if you’re not careful, like you can just slack off all summer, you know and then then they’re dreading going back to school, right then they struggle getting back into that routine and you can have an unproductive three months and it’s like if you just give it a little bit of Intentionality and planning you can actually have a very productive summertime. They can grow and learn in a lot of different areas we’re gonna do the apologetic side of things and we’ll do some other schoolwork stuff, too, but You’d be surprised what kind of a difference that makes in your kid’s life when you do that kind of stuff Yeah, it’s in parenting is so intentional.
[00:17:57.600]
I told a parent last night. We were talking at the baseball field and
[00:18:01.000]
I told her I said parenting has to be so intentional because if you’re not intentional with it Time gets away from you and then you’re like, why didn’t I do this? So start today if you’re not if you haven’t done this before start it now It’s not too late. You might face a little hesitancy if your kids have never done it before But honestly, I think once they get started they’re gonna they’re gonna like it. Yeah Yeah, so kids need things to do they need it so we talked about big vacations schedule those we’ve talked about camps Well, so we talked about just the importance of childcare child We’re doing a Bible study with our kids what that’s gonna look like is we’re gonna do once a week meeting as a family We actually got this for our big four. So our Vinaya is gonna be eight in April. So eight and up are doing this with us one through four Yep, so we’re gonna do once a week probably Friday mornings We’ll probably take them to the coffee shop in town. I think that they will like
[00:18:59.900]
meeting having a meeting place and probably an hour on Friday mornings once a week yeah that’s kind of the goal for that something else I wanted to we did we talked about VBS love VBS so the next thing is teaching your kids to work mm -hmm so something that’s kind of funny that we’re doing this summer is our kids have a lot of fence to paint a lot of it did I say that right fence to paint yes I said over a mile we had a lot of pipe pipe built on the ranch and it’s all got to be painted it’s over a mile so part of our ranch that’s along this road is that we built pipe fence and then it’s like so we got pipe fence and then the sucker rod I think we’ve got seven
[00:19:44.400]
Pieces of sucker rod and coming from the top to the bottom, you know towards the ground and it’s half a mile along the road This way half a mile that away and then on each side There’s you know two gates on each side with entryways and stuff.
[00:19:57.600]
So it’s a lot of fence to paint It’s a lot of fence to paint and what’s we’ve decided to do is offer incentives along the way So our boys worked at the ranch last summer and we did pay them at the end of the summer We have savings accounts for them. And so the end of the summer you were like, hey boys, this is what you earn We’re putting in your savings account. Yeah, we’re gonna do it again this year however, we’re gonna offer incentives along the way because kids like
[00:20:26.100]
immediate satisfaction.
[00:20:27.200]
Is that the right term?
[00:20:29.300]
Yeah, I mean we all do, right? But so we’re still gonna pay them and have money go in their savings account, but we’re also gonna give them rewards along the way. So you have that checkered flag.
[00:20:39.300]
Right, it’s like a race car finish line flag and put it on like a broomstick or something like that and we use it for the guys building the fence now as a target to get to and now we’ll use it for the kids and they paint this much fence, then by the end of the week, then they’ll, we’ll do random things. Maybe they go to Walmart, get to spend 20 bucks on whatever they want or take them to the bowling alley or take them to the arcades or just whatever they kind of would like to do and reward them.
[00:21:09.300]
Yeah, it doesn’t have to be big things, honestly. Like you said, our kids love.
[00:21:16.000]
little things, like if we’re like hey, here’s $20, we’ll go to Walmart and you can get whatever you want. We have this cool store in town called The General Store, and he just has old antiques. Well, our kids love going in there because they don’t know what they’re gonna find, and it supports a small Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business. So, you know, that might be like, hey, we’re gonna go to The General Store, and you guys, here’s, you know, here’s 25 bucks. Go get whatever, when you say whatever you want, I don’t care if we take our kids to Dollar Tree. When it’s get whatever you want, they think it’s the best.
[00:21:45.900]
Oh, they love it. You know, and I think this is sadly a dying part of our society where kids aren’t being taught how to work and to work hard, and parents just wanna provide.
[00:21:57.000]
Right.
[00:21:57.900]
And the kids just, they just, daddy, I want a new baseball glove, I want a new baseball bat, and they just go buy it for them, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And there’s things that you gotta do that as a parent. Don’t hear what I’m not saying.
[00:22:08.400]
but the kids need to learn how to work and earn and then get reward and work, earn, get reward. That’s how the real world is. When you graduate and you go into the workforce and if you don’t, then you just end up with some entitled people in the workforce. And believe me, I’ve hired tons of them and it’s hard to train them at that point. That’s right. It is.
[00:22:29.300]
Our daughter, she’s 13 now. And so she sees other girls wearing name brand clothes. At that age, it’s so easy and in any age, but especially at that age, she’s like, I wish I had lululemon shorts. Oh gosh. I’m like, sis, we will never buy you those. And that’s not to be mean. It’s just that that clothing is dumb, how expensive it is. Those shorts are probably 80 to a hundred dollars. I don’t know.
[00:22:56.900]
Leggings are like $128 there now for leggings. And I’m like, first of all, you outgrow those so fast, you’re still growing. Second of all, like, do you know how long it would take to work to earn those? And so when we start breaking stuff down for her, you know, she learns what the value is. So like we’ve started paying her for doing things and she now it’s like, hey, do you still wanna buy those Lulu leggings short? She’s like, I’d have to work for like five days to buy those. I’m just like, okay, now you’re getting it. And she’s like, that’s not worth it. I’ll just go to Walmart. Yeah, there you go, sis.
[00:23:33.900]
Those are the lessons you wanna teach your kids and help them learn now because until they have to work and earn and then value the money that they’ve earned and have to go exchange it for those Lulu lemon stuff.
[00:23:46.900]
Then until that point they just want the name brand. They just want the thing because they don’t Understand what it takes to get it there There’s no sacrifice on their behalf and you’ve got to teach them that and then once they do put in some blood sweat and tears And work they even bowing the other day was looking at something to buy and he’s like, I don’t buy that’s too expensive That’s dumb for I can’t believe there I took him to Cabela’s for his birthday.
[00:24:11.000]
Yeah, and he was just like because he had his own birthday money He had like a hundred dollars, but when he had his own Birthday money. He was much more thoughtful on what he spent it on. Yeah, he didn’t want to see Exchange those bills for whatever the item was that he was interested in and and he at the end He did pay for what he bought but you know what he was more proud of it
[00:24:32.300]
He paid for it, he got changed for it, and yeah, then he takes better care of it, honestly. So that’s important. I also think it’s a good time to mention, I think as a parent when you have learned these lessons and you are making money now, it can be hard not to just like give it to your kids rather than teach them how to earn it, right? And so it is so important for us as parents to just be like, okay, I learned this lesson, they haven’t. So rather than me just give everything to them, I have to teach them how to work for things and earn them for themselves.
[00:25:13.600]
So that’s where that comes from. And here’s another unpopular opinion.
[00:25:17.600]
I know what you’re gonna say.
[00:25:19.000]
Oh yeah, I’m full of unpopular opinions.
[00:25:20.200]
Are you gonna say the Shaq, is it Shaq?
[00:25:22.600]
Shaq.
[00:25:23.600]
Or is it Steve Harvey?
[00:25:27.000]
Oh, no, it wasn’t going down that path. You mean like they don’t inherit nothing? Yeah, no, I wasn’t going down that path. I was going down like as if I’m staying along the kids stuff and they want things You know kids in athletics and sports these days They want new jerseys or uniforms or they want to go to this tournament out of state somewhere halfway across the United States For whatever reason. Okay, I think a lot of that stuff is very dumb, but that’s what what they do But now it’s like the kids just ask people for money. Oh gosh Sorry, but it’s true as a Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business owner. I get asked for money almost daily almost daily Little Johnny little Suzy somebody’s got something and wants money and they’ll put my name on the back of a t -shirt Okay. Here’s a here’s a deal guys that makes the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business zero dollars
[00:26:17.400]
Okay, it’s it’s not advertising. Okay, people that’s advertising and you get a tax deduction So hey listen, I don’t need your financial advice. Okay a tax deduction. I get I give you a hundred dollars I get to deduct thirty dollars from my Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business. It’s not a I still got to get rid of a hundred dollars You know or whatever it is But here’s my here’s my point is instead of your kids going around asking everybody for money for whatever they’re wanting to do In their life teach them to go do something and earn it. Maybe they go wash cars Maybe they go mow people’s grass in exchange for money Maybe they go paint fence in exchange for money teach them that you work and you provide a service to somebody in return For a payment you don’t just go ask for money, you know People want to go on mission trips all the time at church and it’s like hey Give me some money so I can go wherever Africa Australia or whatever and it’s like hey How about you work and earn your money and pay and then you go there?
[00:27:12.900]
Right. Why do I got to pay for you to go there now if that’s what you want to do as far as your mission work And you want to donate to those people that’s fine I’m just saying in today’s society there’s too many people just asking everybody else for money instead of going and earning it themselves and we’ve got to correct that behavior with our kids or else we create a You know socialism society. Sorry Sorry Stuff just takes me off Like They just people just walk around their handout all the time and I see these little kids and it’s not the kids fault It’s the parents fault and I’m like man Like teach your kid to work and go earn something Those are the value valuable lessons and that will set them up so much greater in life
[00:27:54.900]
And so, yeah, we had Bowen’s one of his little friends what told him the other day, hey, I wanna work at your ranch this summer. He’s like 12, like Bowen and Bowen’s like, great, we got a lot of fence to paint. You can come over and paint fence. He’s like, well, I don’t wanna do that. Oh, really? And I’m like, oh, beggars can’t be choosers, buddy. So if you wanna work on the ranch, that’s what the ranch is doing.
[00:28:15.100]
It’s just sad, like back in the day, it’s like the kids had pride for how hard they worked. It’s like, man, that one summer, you remember we painted fence all summer. Or that one summer, you know, we hauled hay, you hear people used to haul hay all the time, or, you know, you kind of bragged, it was like a badge of honor of how hard you worked for how little you made.
[00:28:30.400]
I grew up hauling hay and painting fence.
[00:28:32.000]
I remember all that. Yeah, it’s like that stuff’s disappearing in today’s society, and I think it’s a shame.
[00:28:35.800]
Well, people think it’s so funny because our kids do paint a lot of fence, and they’ll show, well, when they paint fence, it gets all over them, let’s just be honest. So we’ll show up somewhere and they’re covered in paint. And people think it’s hilarious, but it’s because like, how often do you see kids painting?
[00:28:50.100]
You don’t you know, you don’t see kids with like, you know out working and dirty from working and gosh, it’s so important It’s so important to teach them how to work hard and honestly be uncomfortable Do things that they don’t enjoy? You’re not going to enjoy every day of work in your life So you might as well I tell my kids all the time better get comfortable being uncomfortable Yeah, because I told our daughter that this week and like the quicker you can understand How you can get just comfortable being uncomfortable the better off you’re gonna be Yeah, there’s just they have to learn that otherwise they get they graduate high school.
[00:29:27.200]
Maybe they go to college Maybe they don’t they get in the workforce and they just want a certain amount of money But they have no skills and no work ethic and it’s like they’re not they’re gonna get faced with a hard hard reality and That’s not fair to do to our kids in my opinion so I’d rather them enter the workforce and be somebody that a company or somebody really wants to hire and Give them a leg up
[00:29:49.300]
on their career, whatever they choose to do. So that’s my opinion.
[00:29:53.600]
So I’m gonna say two more things. First of all, maybe your kids are young and you’re like, well, they can’t go work anywhere yet. Well, maybe they do things for you. Maybe they are old enough to mow or weed eat or blow with the leaf blower sweep. Maybe they’re old enough to do dishes or do laundry. You can give them jobs and you don’t have to pay them very much. It’s not about the money. It’s about the life lessons they’re learning. So maybe it’s just things that you can be like, we’re gonna start this and get started with teaching our kids how to earn.
[00:30:29.900]
Or just, yeah, how to earn. Or even if it’s not, you’re not gonna pay them anything. Like we teach our kids too, like there’s household responsibilities. Yeah, you’re not getting paid for everything. Yeah, do you start teaching your kids this? What we’ve had is our kids now wanna be paid for everything. Not all the time, but sometimes. And it’s like.
[00:30:46.500]
I took out the trash, I get paid for that and it’s like, no, why not? It’s like, hey, listen, we all take part in this household. This household has to be maintained. Mommy and daddy buy all your groceries. Mommy cooks your meals and all these things. And you got to teach these kids these, this kind of stuff. And there’s, so that’s important to teach them too is I see so many kids don’t have any type of chores or responsibilities around the house, whether it’s taking the trash out or whatever. I mean, we’ve taught our boys to take trash out since they were like six years old. I feel like I remember I got videos of them dragging a trash can to the curb from behind and you can’t even see the kid because he’s so small. You know, now I think the trash can is empty. We’ve always had long driveways, but it’s like, I learned that kind of lessons.
[00:31:32.500]
Yeah, I’ve always had to pull them a long way.
[00:31:33.500]
Yeah. So anyway.
[00:31:35.300]
And then the last thing I wanted to mention is just having a book list for your kids to read during the summer. We talked about curriculum, but I think also just having a book list. And you can incentivize that. If you have a book list and if you get through that by the end of summer, we’re gonna go to the bowling alley and do and play bowling and get pizza. It does not have to be big. Just giving your kids that incentive will help them do it and it’s gonna be so good for their mind. And you do it too.
[00:32:06.700]
Right.
[00:32:07.000]
You do it too. You and the kids all have goals together of your books you want to read. Maybe it’s a list or maybe it’s you want to read five books. Maybe it’s what you want to get through two books this summer, but you got to have a goal.
[00:32:18.200]
Yeah, and I think one of the last points I want to make is last year I did this for the first time. I got two of my oldest boys and.
[00:32:27.000]
Had a conversation with him when summer was coming up and said hey this summer I’m going to teach you how some habits of being a successful man, right? And I’m gonna you’re gonna wake up early with me. We’re gonna go to the to the barn of Gaines together You’re gonna work out and come back and make breakfast Read your Bible like I’m gonna teach you how to start your day like a successful man, right? Take him under my wing and and so The all summer long, you know They got up at 5 15 in the morning and went with me and I’m not sitting there making them work out hard The point is them to be there and they worked out hard But it just taught them things the flip side of that I see is you could just let your kids just sleep in till 9 10 o ‘clock I think that’s a terrible thing to do on a lot of fronts Creates bad habits and all that stuff and then they got to start waking back up at 7 when school starts and you got all that to deal with but
[00:33:25.000]
take them under your wing this summer. Maybe you just wake up early and you have the Bible study together or go through some curriculum or whatever that looks like, but don’t let them just sleep in until they, you know, I don’t think that’s a healthy move.
[00:33:36.900]
No, I think that’s great. What’s cool about that is our oldest son never stopped. He developed that habit in the summer and now he’s still doing it. He still wakes up at 5 30 does his workout, reads his Bible, like packs his lunch, gets ready for the day. So it just proves it developed that healthy habit.
[00:33:54.300]
Yeah. Good healthy habits. So summers can be very beneficial or they could be a giant waste. It’s your choice. Hopefully with what we shared today, you can make your summers valuable. Look at your calendar. Look at the amount of weeks that are there and start penciling in those things. Get your vacation lined out, get some VBS is lined out, get some camps lined out.
[00:34:15.600]
Line out your child care, you know call some people get some child care lined up Just start filling in those blanks and start your summer with intentionality where you’re not sitting there going What do I do now?
[00:34:28.300]
Yeah I wanted to give a few last things of like the things you do in the summer don’t have to be big For the for me and the kids like you go you’re going to work four days a week normally You’re driving you’re in town. So like me and the kids are finding things to do So when I don’t have a when I’m not working that day We go to local pools There are several local pools. We either go to the town pool We go to there’s several like 30 minutes away from us and it’s like today. We’re going to this pool Well, it’s different and it’s like two dollars a kid So it’s not expensive but they get they love it and they get that vitamin D They get that activity so you can do local things It does not have to be an expensive endeavor is what I’m saying you can go on picnics at the lake and go for a hike we
[00:35:15.400]
Sometimes another thing we did is last summer I had a group of moms that we all have boys close in age And they’re just good boys So we started the iron sharpens iron boys and so once a week we would get together and just like Hang out let the kids hang out let the boys spend time together. Maybe it was every other week Yeah, and so do things like that. I run a program in the summer called aspiring girls summer program We just opened registration for that and I did that because I saw a need that there was nothing In our county for girls to do in the summer To teach them about womanhood and growing up God’s way and and so we I started that and this is our second year to do It now during that program last year. We had 17 salvations. We had girls learn like the basics of motherhood Of being a successful working woman like that. We did arts and crafts and fun things So there’s stuff like that out there. You just got to look for it And if you don’t have it, maybe you need to start it
[00:36:14.900]
That’s good Thank you guys for being with us this week. We hope you learned some things Hope you were encouraged and we will see you next time till next time